


Beyond the Universe

by SweeTarts151



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2018-11-07 11:23:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 67,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11057916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweeTarts151/pseuds/SweeTarts151
Summary: "Maybe we could've been, in another world."Or a series of one-shots/multi-shots of Kara and Alex, in their universe and others.





	1. Red Lantern Alex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex would do anything to protect Kara, even if it means giving up everything.
> 
> (Set after season one finale, though the ship (Containing Mon-El) did not come to earth.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so most of the stories in this will be Alex/Kara (Kalex). Pretty sure most of you already figured that out by the tag, some will be obviously romantic, others not quite so obvious but with undertones. I know some people are very anti-kalex, but to each their own. If Barry Allen and Iris can be raised together at a younger age than Alex and Kara and still be romantic then so can Alex and Kara. In this they will never refer to each other as 'sisters'. Kalex was the first ship I had of Supergirl and it took me a long ass time to actually get the steel ovaries/balls to post a story under the tags. So enjoy. Or at least I hope you enjoy and I hope i'm not coming out too strong or rude, thank you all for reading.

Alex lets out a wheezing pant as the dust settles around them, the alien they had stumbled upon lies dead under the rubble, dark grey skin sallow and leaking red. Alex having shot them with a stunning gun as they both fell, leaving the alien to be crushed and Alex to land hard on her back. There is dust in the air and a red haze that flutters throughout the small cave-in.  _"You have great rage in your heart Alexandra Danvers._ " It echos around her, heady and wanting.

Something tugs inside of her and she tilts her head back against the wall, hand pressed into her bleeding side. Everything aches and this voice is making her teeth grind together and her heart thunder. "Stop."

The voice chuckles and the haze grows thicker, coming from under the rock, where the alien's body lies. " _There's so much pain and anger in you."_

She huffs out a pained sigh, they hadn't expected this guy in the cave, had stumbled upon him slumbering in a deep meditative state when they were hunting a Fort Rozz escapee, three of her men were dead at it's hands and the Fort Rozz escapee was still being chased by Supergirl when it had caused the cave in. "Enough."

 _"You're tempted._ " The voice chuckles, echoing around her head. _"I can feel it. I can make the pain go away. I can make you_ extraordinary. _I can give you what you need to get your father back. No pain. No fear. No remorse. Nothing to hold you back, all you need is a taste and you'll want more. Tell me Alexandra, do you want to save everyone? Do you want to be a hero?"_

She scoffs, pressing on her wound to keep the black dot from dancing across her field of vision and ground her. "I'm no hero and I don't need to be."

The voice lets out a long hum that grates on her ears. " _But you want to be."_

She scoffs again, she's no hero. "No."

 _"Yes."_ And it's voice is vindictive, twisting around her skull like it can read her every thought. Rao what was this alien and how was it still getting to her while buried under a hundred pounds of rock? She presses harder against her side, blood warm against her hand. " _You want your mother to finally tell you you did_ good. _You want to save your father. You want to tear Cadmus apart. You want to protect Kara. I can give you what you need. All you have to do is put the ring on."_

"No." And she glares at the rock, and spot this dark red seeping from under it, darker than even blood. "I won't."

 _"Would you rather I went to Kara?"_ The voice turns harsh before gleeful, egging her on. " _There's so much anger in her. So much loss and pain. She would be a more powerful host, sweet to vicious. I could do that."_

Alex stiffens and her voice is harsh with rage. "Don't you _dare_ touch her." Her teeth bared and eyes wild, every instinct and thought yelling at her to protect Kara. To keep it away from her.

 _"It would be like red kryptonite all over again._ " And the laugh is mutinous, gleeful. " _Do you remember that?"_

Alex stiffens, presses harder on her wound and doesn't even wince as she glares at the red oozing from under the rock. " _Don't."_  

 _"All you have to is give in."_ And it's soothing, echoing around the cavern and her skull. " _You'll save those you need to. You'll be more powerful. You can keep up with Supergirl and you can_ protect _her._

All she can think of is Kara bleeding, shouting in pain and dropping to her knees when kryptonite comes out. She can stop it. With those thoughts the air seems to change, the being, whatever it is, goes from taunting to smug and Alex's can almost feel her shoulders slump. "Why?"

 _"The rage in your heart calls._ " And there's a flicker in her chest, something hot and heady. Something that flushes her veins as the voice seems to flows through her body. Echoing. _"Embrace it._ "

"ALEX!" Kara screams above her, voice echoing through the rock, searching for her in this rubble. Desperate with the lead from the mines near them blocking some areas off from her senses.

 _"Soon it won't be a choice Alexandra Danvers."_ The voice is no less smug, but almost desperate. Angry. _"I will take_ whoever _I can get. You're just my first choice."_   With that Alex jerks forward into the red ooze, grabs the ring from it and slipping it on her finger as Kara comes crashing down from the cavern above her, rocks crumble under kryptonian hands. Kara finds Alex and the dead alien at her feet, dust clinging to them all, eyes wide as she lands with a rumble.

"Alex." Kara, in full Supergirl regale, pulls her in for a hug. Relieved. Hands slightly too tight before she pulls back quickly. "Are you hurt? Are you okay?" Her eyes are desperately searching Alex, finding the small bruises and scratches here and there, then the wound at her side.

Alex squeezes Kara's fingers as Kara stares desperately at the wound. "I'm fine." And the ring lies dormant on her finger, sated for now. Calm before the storm and Kara is too focused on the blood clinging to Alex's side to see the ring. To feel the wrongness it emits.

* * *

* * *

* * *

A week later, with Alex having kept the ring a secret and finding that it refused to budge from her finger, the voice surprisingly silent, Cadmus attacks. Cadmus lets loose aliens with the intent of scaring the populous and gaining more anti-aliens to their side. They let loose aliens with the intent of killing Supergirl. It goes to hell in the field, Alex shooting at Cadmus experiments with agents by her side and Kara fighting the largest of the three. It goes to hell when Kara flies the creature up into the air, intent on slamming it into the ground. It goes to hell when kryptonite glows green across the field and Kara lets out a pained scream. Kara drops the alien and falls to the ground. She falls like gravity has an effect on her now.

The ring activates when Alex hears her pained yelled and sees Kara hit the ground. All Alex feels is this fear that bleeds into rage, she reacts without thought. All rage and power. Her tactical suit slips from black to black with red markings, a crest across her chest and she is moving. Slamming forward into the alien infused with kryptonite that had stumble to its feet once Kara had dropped it. Once it had stabbed its claws into Kara.

He grunts in pain, rolling across the ground. Green glowing across his body. She chases after him, gun dropped to the ground in her fit of rage and her skin taking an unnatural red sheen. Kara is slumped across the ground, groaning as she attempts to stand, kryptonite embedded in her and Alex is throwing Cadmus' alien across the ground again. Roaring in rage at the red coming from Kara. Alex lays into him, red falling over her eyes, hazy and so very angry. Before she knows it his blood is painting the ground, slick, warm and purple. Sticking to her face and her heart is racing, faster and faster and she tastes blood on her lips as another alien comes from the shadows, her other agents downed from it, glowing green as well. Lucy is calling for back up over the coms, yelling for Alex to retreat, J'onn is on his way with panicked orders in her ear and Kara is weakened, bleeding from cuts to her face and side, bleary eyed as she attempts to stand and protect Alex. And Alex, Alex is angry.

Alex clenches her fist, this innate need to protect in her bones, fueled by rage and suddenly there is a glowing red sword, something like flames lick at the edges and she roars back at the other alien. One tipped in spikes and armor, teeth yellow and long. She slices into it with a yell. Taking a quill tipped in kryptonite through her shoulder, her mind is over-run with anger at Cadmus. They had made the aliens specifically to hurt Kara. Cadmus had experimented on refugees in order to _hurt_ Kara. The rage burns and her eyes glow as she rips into these creatures, ending their misery and the threat they pose to Kara. The Cadmus brand on their chest is burned into her mind and it throws her into a fury until all that's left is pieces of the remaining two aliens and Kara, slumped against the wall of a crumbling building, watching her with shocked blue eyes. "Alex?" Her voice is weak, tired, glowing green barbs stuck in her shoulder and thigh.

Rage burns brighter and Alex stalks forward, slipping fingers into the wound to pull out the pieces, blue blood from the last of the three aliens drenches her hands until they are coated with the red from Kara as well. "They can't hurt you." Her words are thick and disembodied.

"What?" Kara still looks dazed from the kryptonite, hands clutching at Alex's. "What happened?"

"They hurt you." And Alex growls, eyes still red, Kara is staring up at her, confused and worried. "Cadmus hurt you."

J'onn touches down as Alex throws the kryptonite away from them and looks around the carnage, the three agents that had come with Alex are slumped against the ground and wall, one dead and two wounded, possibly dying, from the aliens it seem. "Alex." He takes in the red of her suit now, the crest on her chest and the ring on her finger. "Where did you get the ring?" His voice is deathly, would make most of the men stand at attention or cower.

Her hearts racing too fast, blood thrumming through her veins and rage is bleeding from her, making her twitch. "Why?"

"You need to take it off." He is calm, eyes looking her over.

Something twitches in her chest and she bares her teeth at him, head still hazy with rage. "You want me weak! You want to control me." She rips her hands from Kara's and stands in front of the still woozy Kryptonian like J'onn was a threat.

"No, Alex." He holds up his hands, attempting to calm her. "The ring. It is rage. You need to let it go."

"NO!" And the red flares around her, and it bleeds hazy in her mind, sharp and hateful, forcing J'onn out of her head. "I can protect Kara. I have no weakness."

"Except love." His eyes are pained and worried. "Alex, this ring will _kill_ you."

And it is flooding her mind, tendrils of red seeping into every part of her body. Her heart. Her brain. "It will save me." Her muscles tremble and the red takes everything, forces her thoughts out of her mouth. "It'll save my father. Cadmus will fall."

"Alex." And her name sounds like a prayer across his lips, something flickers in her chest, the red receding at his tone. "A Red Lantern is not the ring you want. You are full of so much love and will. You can fight this."

And Alex blinks. The red haze falling. She looks around the battlefield, the blood staining her and the ground. The pieces of aliens scattered the field. "J'onn?" Her eyes find a worried Kara. A healing Kara. "Kara?"

"Take off the ring Alex." And J'onn is closer, worried and almost begging but still commanding. Kara is watching her with wide eyes, fingers itching to press and touch. To calm and make sure Alex is fine.

The voice echos around her, thick with anger. _"The Martian doesn't want you to be strong. He doesn't want you to do what is your right. He wants to make you weak again. You can't protect Kara if you're weak. You can't take down Cadmus. We can make them bleed Alexandra. We can make them pay. They're using your father. Tortured him for ten years. They're coming after Kara!"_ And the voice is loud, louder than J'onn's pleas and Kara worried crinkle. _"They'll take everything from you, don't you hate them? Don't they make you angry? Let the rage continue Alexandra and we can overcome Cadmus and anyone else who threatens what is yours. With blood and rage of crimson red Alexandra."_

Alex steps back, the red haze coming back. "No, you don't want me to be strong." She glares at him. 

"Alex, you know that's not true." He's almost reaching for her. "You are the strongest of us all. I need you to fight this." J'onn is stepping closer, Alex narrows her eyes in suspicion, so focused on him and trusting Kara to watch her back, she doesn't see the dart until it is sticking out the side of her neck, flooding her with enough sedative to knock out an alien. She fights it, stares at J'onn in betrayal before it catches up to her. Her legs give out and she feels Kara's arms catch her.

* * *

 

She wakes up an hour later in a room fitted to contain the strongest aliens they've fought. She stumbles to her feet, glares at the camera, her feet are bare and she's in pants and her jacket, no belt, no weapons. They've stripped her of anything she could use as a weapon. Stripped her of everything they've trained her to escape with. She beats on the glass with her fist, it glows red around the edges but it won't break. "Let me out!" And the red is all around her, consuming her. Kara watches her from the other side of the glass, Alex spots her quickly. "KARA! Let me OUT!" And the glass threatens to crack under the human fist shrouded in red, but it was made to hold beings as strong as Kryptonians. It doesn't break, but it creaks. "I protected you! I did everything for you and you lock me away!"

"Alex." Kara's voice cracks and Alex stops screaming. Stops and stares at her, panting like she'd run a marathon and a half. Kara meets her gaze, face twisted in pain. "I'm so sorry. J'onn he." Kara trembles. "He said that it was like a parasite. That it will consume you. Please. Please take it off. I need you."

"Kara?" And Alex blinks, some of the red fading away. 

 _"Please."_ And a tear drips down Kara's face. She presses her hand into the glass. "I can't lose you Alex."

Alex lets out a soft pained groan as the red fade. "You won't lose me Kara, ever."

The voice pounds around her head, thick and angry. _"Lies. You'll lose her if you take the ring off. Without it there is no chance of protecting her. Fort Rozz will come back for her, they will kill her. Cadmus will find her, they will experiment on her. Can you protect her then? You couldn't even protect her from Maxwell Lord and he is a measly human. What make you think you'll do anything against aliens?"_

Alex shakes her head. "Stop." She presses her palms against her eyes, the red humming around her.

"Alex?" Kara's eyes are wide and worried and she presses closer tot he glass.

"I'm fine." Alex growls out, shaking her head. "I'm fine."

 _"How can a measly human protect a kryptonian?!"_ The voice is harsh and echoing around her skull, feeding on every thought shes had. Peeling away insecurities and hidden rage. " _How can you save your father if you can't even fight against Cadmus' forces! Without me you will be nothing. You can't save them."_

"STOP!"  Alex growls, the red flaring, she reaches to pull the ring off but it clings to her, feeding off of her rage and she yells out in frustration, hitting at the glass.

"ALEX!" Kara presses into the glass, face twisted with worry. J'onn said Alex had to stay in there, that if she got out they'd never get her back. That he was calling in reinforcements to help Alex before it got too bad, that's as much as he would tell her and Kara aches to hold Alex, aches to protect her and stop her pain. Tears drip down her face as Alex screams at a voice only she can hear.

Alex paces the room, refusing to look at Kara, muttering to herself about plans, saving Jeremiah and protecting Kara. Kara sits against the glass, refusing to leave Alex. Her pleas had only made the voice in Alex's head louder and in turn made Alex aggravated and glowing in red as she screamed at the voice, argued with it. Kara sits there and listens to Alex rage on and on, listens to her heart pound faster than she's ever heard it before.

J'onn comes from a side door an hour later, in Hank Henshaw form, he comes to a stop near the glass, face tight with tension. Alex stares at him, blinking hazy eyes rimmed in red. "Did you call your reinforcements J'onn?" And it's Alex's voice but there's an echo to it, one that sounds old and too smug.

He stares at her, meets her gaze head on, even through the red haze. "Take off the ring Alex."

Alex blinks at him, confused and slightly disgruntled. "I'm fine."

"It will only get worse from here out Alex, you are too good for the red." And he's pleading with her now. "Do not listen to the whispers it promises you."

Alex blinks at them, clenches her jaw before she shakes her head, gripping at her hair and glaring at J'onn. "It was either me or Kara. I wasn't letting them have her."

Kara blinks up at her, shocked and guilty. "Alex? Why would you do that?" Kara pauses, brows furrowed before her shoulders straighten and she meet Alex's desperate gaze with her own determined one. "Take it off."

"I can't. He'll go for you next, and it'll be like Red-K all over again." Alex's eyes are wide with guilt too. "I can protect you from that. I can protect you from everything now. I'm strong Kara." And Alex's eyes are going glossy and she's begun to sweat, wide eyes pleading with Kara. "I can stop them from hurting you."

"What if I want to stop them from hurting you?" Kara presses into the glass, itching to reach out to Alex, press her finger to her cheek. "Please Alex, just take it off. Please. I'll be fine."

The haze flutters around Alex and the voice growls low in her mind. _"She's lying, trying to control you, so that she'll be the only hero."_

"NO!" Alex growls at the voice, baring her teeth and shaking her head. "She's not. Kara's not like that." Kara's eyes are wide as she watches Alex argue with a voice only she can hear.

The voice switches tactics then and Alex is too hazy to catch it. _"Then she wants you away form the danger, out of the field. She wants to protect you, but who will protect her out there if you're in here? If you don't have the ring who will stand at her back and watch it, who will save her? Without the ring you are nothing. You are human. You are weak. With the rage you can do anything. You can save her, even from herself."_ Alex blinks and then there's a twinge in her gut, heart thudding. Kara is staring at her in desperation and J'onn looks resigned. The voice continues on in the background as Alex stares at Kara's watery eyes. " _It's too late now._ " It's so smug and Alex bares her teeth ready to retaliate but her gut twists and she lets out a pained scream as she drops to her knees.

Kara presses against the glass as Alex's knees hit the ground, clutching her stomach before puking. Blood covers the floor with each heave, copper fills the air and Alex heaves again, splattering the floor and glass with blood once more. "ALEX!" Kara bangs on the glass, cracking it as Alex continues to puke, heaving and crying out. Kara hits the glass again and again, but the metal surrounding it is impervious to kryptonian strength and kryptonite is molded within the glass, keeping Kara from breaking it. Alex's heart is racing as she heaves another stomach full of blood onto the floor before she collapses with a groan. Her heart pounds faster and faster, Kara screams at J'onn to open the door. To let her in. Alex's heart is going faster than she's ever heard it before, there's a second that drags on for eternity before it skitters to a stop. Kara hits the glass again, almost through it now in her desperation. "Her heart!" Her eyes glow blue and she aims heat vision at the glass. "J'onn! Open it." The heat vision does nothing, only makes the glass glow red and the kryptonite molten. "ALEX!"

J'onn stares morosely at the blood, defeat in his shoulder. "She's alive."

"Her heart has _stopped."_ She beats on the glass again, screaming for Alex who is slumped on the ground. It cracks even more, spidering away from her fist and then Alex pulls in a breath, moaning softly from the floor. Kara screams for her again, J'onn pulling her back with strong hands. Kara has tears streaming down her face as she struggles in J'onn's hands. "Her heart, I can't hear it."

"She's alive." J'onn's eyes are saddened. "It's what the ring does. I had hoped it wasn't that far yet."

Kara pulls herself out of his arms, collapsing to her knees against the glass, fingers pressing into it. Alex pants on the other side, groaning softly. Tears stream down both of their faces. _"Alex."_

* * *

* * *

They flood the room with scentless gas to knock her out, despite Alex's weak fluttering eyes and soft moans of pain, at J'onn's order. Said that without she'd be too lucid. Too dangerous. Kara sits in the room with them as they run tests on her. "Is she dead?" And there's a catch in her voice, something like defeat and terror.

J'onn stands at the foot of the bed as they run tests. "No, the ring keeps her alive. For now."

Kara stares at Alex, her heart isn't beating but she's breathing and there the flow of red in her veins, something thicker than blood when Kara x-rays her. "What happens if the ring stops working?"

J'onn sighs, low and deep in his chest. "It won't stop working, it will feed off of the rage she has."

"And when she runs out?" Kara refuses to take her eyes off of Alex's slowly moving chest.

J'onn is silent for a minute before he speaks, he sounds like the weight of the world is on his shoulders. Like he's losing another family again. "As long as Cadmus threatens your life and has her father she won't run out."

Kara looks up sharply, turns to face him. "So if we defeat them she dies?"

There a moment of shock on his face and he can't read kryptonian minds but he seems to read Kara's in this moment. "Kara."

"I won't choose between keeping Alex alive and defeating Cadmus." Her eyes bore into him, dark and they hold a level of threat in them. Something dangerous and dark. Something that reminds him a little of Red-K. "You already know what one i'll choose."

"Kara," He says her name like it tears him apart inside, like everything he's known is shattering. She can understand that feeling. Her chest is heavier than his. Her heart thundering in fear and worry. "I've never seen the red ring go after someone who loves like Alex does."

Her eyes narrow, a sharpness that betrays her alien nature. "What do you mean?"

"Love and rage cannot coexist." And he stares at the red ring on Alex's hand. The way the veins in her finger and hand seem to come alive under it. "Not with the rings."

"So you're saying she doesn't love me anymore." And there's a break in her voice. "That she can't."

He shakes his head, staring at the rise and fall of Alex's chest. They'd have to move her back to containment soon. "She shouldn't be able to. Loving you, it could very well cause the ring to reject her."

"She tried to take it off." Kara grabs Alex's hand, the one that doesn't have the ring. She's hot. Hotter than even Kara, like the rage from the ring heats everything up. Like liquid heat moves through her veins now. Kara glares at the ring. "Why wouldn't it come off?"

"It chose her and she accepted it." J'onn's shoulders slump and he lets out what can only be a close to defeated sigh. "Only in death or rejection by the ring will it come off. Then it will choose a new host."

"But if it comes off she dies, and it'll only come off if she dies?" Kara stands up and begins pacing the room, her shoulders are tight with tension and her jaw clenched. "Then it's not a choice, she keeps the ring."

J'onn looks up in shock, eyes wide. He may have been able to read her actions at the beginning of the talk but he had not expected that. "Kara."

Kara keeps her gaze on Alex but she six feet from him and he can see her eyes narrowed with anger and desperation in the mirror. "I will not risk her J'onn!"

He stares at her in sympathy, eyes wide and earnest despite her not looking at him. "And what about what Alex wants?"

Kara spins to face him, ears listening intently to the wheeze of each breath Alex takes. "What do you mean?"

"Do you think she would want to be this, to kill people without remorse." He's guilty and tired. Pleading. "She tore those aliens apart."

"I know! But I can't lose her J'onn. I won't." And her eyes glow red, getting hotter and hotter until they glow blue with her heat vision and there's that familiar rage that bled over with the red kryptonite. "I will stop anyone that tries to take her from me."

J'onn sighs, taking a step back. Giving Kara the room she needs. "No one is taking her away, or killing her. I want her saved as much as you do Kara, but the Red Lanterns are a threat to society. We can't let her get out."

"So she'll be caged, forever?" Kara drops back down to her seat, hand coming to grip Alex's again. She drops her forehead to press into Alex's side, where it moves with every heave of air into Alex's body. "That's no way to live."

She can hear J'onn shuffle behind her, the steady thump of his heart and the smell of mars on his skin. "She can't be trusted out there."

"I can protect her." And there's a desperate plea in her voice again. "She'll listen to me."

"Any interaction with you is a threat to her life Kara, the way she loves you could kill you." He sets his hand on her shoulder, squeezes it when she shudders with sobs. "I'll figure it out, I have contacted the other Lantern Corps in hopes of fixing this."

* * *

 Kara is leaning against the glass, watches Alex do push-ups. There's the rasp of her breaths and the flow of red through her veins, a steady thrum from the ring but no quickening heartbeat. No sweat clinging to her brow and veins pulsing with blood. "I can't hear your heart anymore." Kara's voice cracks and Alex looks up, stops her push-ups and stares at Kara. "I can't find you if you're lost. It won't ground me." And Kara can already feel herself slipping away, longing for Alex's familiar heartbeat.

Alex tilts her head, stepping closer before she gives a trembling smile. "You have me, you don't need my heart." And the red in her eyes flickers a little and she winces in pain, clutching at where her heart had once been beating. "Ow."

"Alex! Whats wrong?" Kara presses against the glass, eyes wide and glass creaking under her power.

Alex furrows her brow, rubs at her chest in confusion. "That hurt."

Kara's lips tremble and she hates this, hates the uncertainty and the threat of death. "We'll figure it out. Everything will be okay."

Alex tilts her head, stepping closer to the glass before she presses her hand to where Kara's is. "We're in this together, of course everything will be okay. We'll find my dad, we'll defeat Cadmus. They won't hurt you anymore, I won't let them."

Kara presses her forehead into the glass, closes her eyes as tears fill them. "I can't lose you."

Alex grins and the red is still there, hidden under everything but Alex is there too, earnest and strong. "You won't, i'm strong now."


	2. Universe 13: Kryptonian(Danvers) baby (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Universe 13: year 2013: Two years before Supergirl reveals herself, weeks before Alex was recruited by the DEO, Alex and Kara find a ship that contains a kryptonian child and changes their lives.

_Midvale 2013_

They're both in Midvale, back to help Eliza clear the attic and basement on one of their few weekends off from school before finals, off from Alex's research and Kara's job at Noonans. They're laying down in the field, like they used to after Jeremiah died. The stars are bright and the moon full and shining on them as the sit in silence and stare at the sky. There's a streak across the darkness and Alex eyes it, tilting her head back. There were no satellites meant to orbit over Midvale this time of the year, Kara would have excitedly told her about it. Kara has her brow furrowed when it breaks the atmosphere and hurdles across the sky, leaving smoke behind it. It's not close to Midvale, Alex loses sight of it once it crests out of view but Kara doesn't. Alex is stiff as she scrambles to her feet, trying to find it among the darkness, it hadn't looked like a satellite. Not like any she had studied. "Kara?"

Kara reacts as she bolts up, eyes never leaving the spot the thing had crashed as she grabs Alex by her waist and shoulder and they are off, faltering slightly with the flying before Kara gets the hang of it again. Alex's fingers dig into skin that will never bruise or bleed from the tight hold. The wind whips past their faces and their hair tangles in the wind. They are far from Midvale and the rest of civilization when Alex finally sees what had frozen Kara in her spot back in the field. The pod is silver like Kara's was, but smaller, much smaller and there are flames licking the grass and the edges of the pod. They hit the ground with a _whomp_  and Alex stumbles to stay on her feet as Kara loosens her hold and stands frozen stiff, fingers tight in the cloth of Alex's jacket. Alex walks closer without hesitation, Kara's fingers almost ripping the fabric of the jacket in her grip. Alex is curious and forward where Kara is frozen in shock and fear. "Alex, careful." Kara clutches at her elbow, stepping beside the older woman, their long hair is a tangle of knots that Kara itches to smooth out.

"Its fine Kara. Pull the lid off." Alex is tense muscles and long hair blowing in the wind as Kara steps forward, flames licking at her hands and clothes as she grabs the lid like Kal had all those years ago and pulls it off with a gentle snap. Alex and Kara both stare in disbelief as the lid hits the ground with a resounding thud. "Holy shit." Inside is a child, probably around three judging by the size, with bright grey eyes staring back at them, narrowed in suspicion. Dark hair falls in ringlets messily around a pale face. Alex doesn't take her eyes off the child as she questions Kara. "Is she from Krypton?"

"I don't know." Kara is warily, leaning in close before she speaks in her native language, slow and steady for the child. " _What is your house little one?"_

The kid blinks at her before making grabby hands at the chain around Kara's neck. Kara lifts the child gently, reverent and terrified as she shifts her into the saddle of her hip and elbow. The kid babbles for a second before finding words. " _Mother sent away. I want mother."_

Kara stiffens and Alex follows her lead, muscles tightening. "Kara?"

Kara is fracturing before her eyes and Alex steps close, hand coming to the blonde's elbow. Kara shudders before speaking, tears filling her eyes. "She speaks the high born language. I don't und-."

Kara chokes off her words as the kid continues to babble in Kryptonian, Alex knows it, but not this dialect. Not with this enunciation combined with baby babble. "What?"

Kara shudders under her hands, fingers of her free hand reaching for Alex's jacket, something to ground her as the child taps against Kara's chest, fingers tangling in the chain. "She speaks it like I would have as a child."

Alex swallows, eyes searching the child who keeps staring at them with too intelligent grey eyes. "What is her house?"

Kara murmurs soft words to the child, looking for injuries before they finally look at the child's crest. It rest on her chest like Kara's once had, smaller than Superman's and just a raised pieces of fabric. Kara completely stiffens. Alex's tightens her hand on Kara's elbow. "Kara?"

There's a look in Kara's eyes, one Alex hadn't seen except on really bad nights or anniversaries. "It is my mother's and aunt's house, before my mother married, but I don't understand." Her eyes are dark, wrinkles around them, broken with grief and shock. "They're gone. Aunt Astra didn't have any kids." But the grey eyes are familiar as is the head of dark curls, Kara pulls her in close, breathes in the smell of Krypton and the dark scent of her aunt, clinging to the child's hair, Kara shudders. " _I'm your cousin. Hush Little one."_  Had her aunt escaped Krypton? Or had she sent a child away like her mother had? Kara's fingers shake and she clutches her cousin closer to her chest, Alex's hand coming to rest on her elbows as tears fall from Kara's face.

* * *

* * *

An hour later they touch down on the ground, Kara have carried the ship back to Midvale. Alex is climbing out of the pod, the child in her arms. Kara heaves the ship into the shed behind the house, the one that used to store Alex's surfboards. Alex is holding Kara's baby cousin like she might be a bomb while Kara does this, staring at sotrm grey eyes like they held all the answers. Kara comes back around at super-speed, eyeing the auburn haired woman and the dark haired child. "Alex?"

Alex's heart is pattering away, frantic like when she used to sneak in late at night. Her breathing is too quick for normal and her eyes never leave Kara's cousin's. "Are three year old potty trained on Krypton Kara?" And she deflects her nervousness away with humor.

Kara wrinkles her entire face and Alex's heart slows slightly at that so Kara play along. "We weren't primitive Alex." Kara narrows her eyes at the twinkle in Alex's before she huffs, reaching for her cousin. Alex hands her over easily, hands shaking. Kara squeezes one gently. "She will be used to the restrooms on Krypton though."

Alex snorts, hands stilling but heart still pattering quicker than normal as she turns around and they begin to make their way to the house, the night sky dotted with stars behind them. "I remember, you ripped the door off it's hinges when I went to take a shower." Kara rolls her eyes, bouncing her cousin gently in her arms. They reach the front door and Alex is all tense muscles, they had left because Eliza had been riding on Alex about her research, her plans for the future and Kara had seen Alex's walls climbing before Kara had thrown an excuse about looking at the stars and dragged Alex away. Away from Eliza and her harsh judgment and even harsher words.

The door is ripped open before they can turn the knob and Eliza narrows her eyes. "Honestly Alex, it is one in the morning, why did you stay out so la-" She cuts her words off when she spots the child in Kara's arm. "Who is she?"

Kara swallows, arms tightening slightly around the curious child. "My cousin, her pod crashed into the ground."

And Eliza is staring at the little girl like she's something she's never seen before, at the dark hair and the curious grey eyes. "Clark's sister?"

Kara stiffens and her finger presses into the In-Ze crest situated on her cousins chest. "No, My mother's twin, my aunt's, child. She has no blood to Clark." Alex is stiff as they walk into the house, Kara is all taut muscles and confusion. Loss, grief and love.

Eliza's eyes are darting back and forth racing and planning. She gives a sharp nod like the decisions been made before she steps closer to Kara. "I can watch her for you Kara, raise her like my own." And Eliza is soft eyes and understanding, like she expects Kara to release her cousin into her hands without a fight. Alex stiffens even more, itching to reach for Kara.

Kara shakes her head, fingers almost tightening. "She's my blood. I don't." 

"Your only twenty-two Kara, no one expects you to take care of a child." Eliza is soft around the edges but stern and Kara is all hunched shoulders and confusion. She's graduates in a few weeks, lost and confused with all the changes coming but she won't leave her blood alone, not like Clark did. Alex scoffs, crossing her arms. Eliza narrows her eyes. "Alexandra?"

Alex tilts her chin high, like she doesn't break after Eliza normally leaves the room. Like Eliza voice and narrowed eyes don't tear her apart. "And if Kara wants to raise her, keep her?"

"I am giving her options Alexandra." And Eliza is hardened edges again, warring against Alex in a familiar way. "She does not need to put her life on hold for the baby."

Alex shakes her head and there a glint of a decision made and a challenge accepted in hazel eyes that Kara recognizes but Eliza doesn't. "Like I put mine on hold? You didn't raise Kara mom, I _did._  I was fourteen and you told me it was my duty to take care of her." Kara's shoulders begins to tremble and without thought Alex moves forward, eyes never leaving her mother's even as she presses a reassuring hand to Kara's back. "To look out for her, but no, Clark doesn't need to."

Eliza stiffens, never taking her eyes off Alex. Tense and ready for an argument. "Clark had too much going on."

"Kara was thirteen and she lost her whole world. He left her with _strangers."_ Alex shakes her head, glaring at her mother and Kara is still quiet, almost trembling under Alex's almost steady hand. "The baby has lost her whole world, Kara is her family."

"Alexandra." And Eliza is sharp again, Kara's still quiet, letting them argue like they were prone to do. When is comes to Alex's schooling and especially when it comes to Kara and Alex's involvement in her life.

Alex's fingers tremble across Kara's back, the only thing to betray her nerves. "We'll take her to National City."

Kara looks between them, itching to grasp Alex's fingers in her own, eyes watering with something like relief and love. Eliza's face is hard and flinty as she purses her lips at her daughter. "You're not even going to ask Kara Alexandra, just plow through like you always do. You never think of the _consequences."_

"I always think of consequences." Alex moves forward until she's side to side with Kara, hands clenched. Kara is stiff in the wake of an argument and so is her young cousin, clutching at Kara's shoulder and watching Eliza and Alex like they were alien and dangerous. "I am five steps ahead of everyone. I helped Kara and we can help her cousin. 

Eliza's face twists and Kara steps in before Eliza can tear another hole into Alex's walls. "Stop, please. I am going to look after my cousin. She will stay with me."

Eliza softens, letting out a sigh. "A baby is a lot of responsibility Kara, stay in Midvale at least."

Alex stiffens like Kara will accept but Kara shakes her head. "I have a job offer in National City." Alex relaxes, Kara can see it in the soft set of her shoulders and the wrinkles that disappear from around her eyes as Eliza lets out a soft sigh, conceding under Kara like she always had.

* * *

* * *

They're in their old room tonight, Eliza asleep in her room after she made Kara promise to get her if she needed anything. Alex is slumped on the floor, against the foot of the bed, phone on as she flicks through amazon for baby supplies. Kara is running fingers through dark curls, her cousin sleeping next to her hip on the bed. Kara's feet are pressed into Alex's shoulders, the twin bed almost too small for Kara's long frame. "She's definitely my aunt's."

Alex looks up curiously, tilting her head, her long auburn hair is pulled up into a bun, high and messy on her head. "Why?

Kara fingers trail to the pendant around the child's neck, her name etched into it, familiar gently slopes that can only be kyrptonian. "Her name. My aunt always said a name held meaning. It forged who you were." Kara's toes curl against Alex's back and Alex's fingers find her ankle, head leaning against Kara's shin. "A strong name for a strong child. She always mentioned my mother." Kara's voice goes wistful and pained like it normally does at the mention of her family. "Alura meant divine councilor, her codex said she would fill the judicar position. Aunt Astra was an anomaly, an extra. She was a star among planets."

Alex fingers twitch before they barely skim over a pale cheek chubby with youth. "And her?"

Kara smiles softly. "It means to rise, the dawn." Kara's eyes are foggy with memories and emotions. "She is named for Rao, and she is named to rise above all else." Kara presses a small kiss to a baby soft forehead. "She is Oriana." 

* * *

Three Months Later

Today had began rough, Alex's research had been halted last semester due to academic suspension. She was working to get her grades back up during the summer courses, but the tremors and the headaches had refused to leave her alone these last few months. Kara had noticed but thankfully let Alex deal with them herself, though all the alcohol had mysteriously disappeared from the apartment when Alex had stopped drinking cold turkey. Today though, to add to the hardships, Oriana refuses to walk in all her kryptonian weight. Needy and whining she clutches at Alex, her head buried into Alex's long hair, fingers twisted in it and her shirt. Alex has a messenger bag balanced on her opposite shoulder, full of work as well as supplies for Oriana. Kara was suppose to met them in the lobby to go to lunch thirty minutes ago, a scheduled daily lunch they keep so that Oriana would have a routine to calm her down on a new planet. Something that they hadn't missed despite their busy schedules, at least until today.

Everyone is staring at Alex, confused tilts to their heads as she steps out of the elevator. Kara had lasted longer than most assistants, she hadn't brought anyone who wasn't suppose to be on Cat's floor like the one three assistants ago did, but no one ever had the balls to come up here when they didn't work here. Especially without an assistant as an escort, so Alex was an anomaly. The workers watch as dark eyes dart around the room before a familiar cardigan is spotted, Alex makes her way to the desk, dropping the messenger bag down under it and looking around as Oriana clings to her. A man, scruffy hair and square jaw, with action figures on his desk is staring at her curiously. "Is Kara around?"

His eyes widen and everyone else is listening in as well, though not hiding it very well. "She's getting Miss Grants printout from below." The man fiddles with his tie, nervous. "What um what do you need?"

Alex arches a brow, leaning her hip against the desk, Oriana has her fingers still in Alex's hair, fingers tightening as the man speaks, Alex winces as the grip yanks out a few follicles. "Ouch, baby, pulling out my hair." Alex taps the girls wrist gently with two fingers and Oriana huffs, loosening her grip with a grumble. The man before her, who looks more and more like a kicked puppy is staring at her, eyes darting between the glass door behind Kara's desk, Alex and then Oriana. "She was suppose to met us for lunch, like always."

The man nods quickly, hand rubbing up and down his knees in a nervous tick as he stares wide-eyed at Alex and Oriana. "Oh, its layout day. The quarterly reports too, it's Kara's first time doing these, maybe she lost track of time?" And he hunches his shoulder under her unamused look. 

Alex takes pity on him and lets out a sigh, leaning more heavily against the desk. She has a headache and her muscles are killing her. Stopping cold turkey had been a bitch the first month, going into the second it was still a bitch, but she wouldn't be her mother. She wouldn't drink when a child relied on her. "Can I wait up here for her or do I need to go back to the lobby?"

The man shrugs again, shoulders curved like he's waiting to be yelled at, Alex softens a little at that. Not much, but enough that he stops pulling at a loose string on his leg. "I mean you're up here already? But I don't know what Miss Grant will do."

Alex rolls her eyes, slouching down into Kara's chair and grabbing her messenger bag from where she set it. Alex murmurs something in Kryptonian to Oriana, low so that no one else hears, before pulling out a Rubik's cube, made of the strongest metal Alex could find and fit together, the colors completely disorganized and ready to be fixed. Oriana finally release her hair, leaning back against Alex's chest and staring at the paperwork in front of Alex before grabbing the cube with nimble tiny fingers. Unknown to Alex Cat Grant is watching them with narrowed curious eyes.

The CEO had been since the stranger had walked into her floor like she was on a mission, dark hair tinted in red pulled back to curl in waves down her back, dark jeans tucked into even darker boots and a leather jacket over a pale grey collared shirt. There's a child on her hips, possibly four, a little too old and heavy to be carried for long but the woman persists. Cat takes in everything with a reporters eyes. There's a bag slung over her shoulder, worn and heavy, ink smudges on it and glasses shoved atop her head. The unknown woman searches the room before zeroing in on her assistant's desk, setting the bag under it before she turns her attention to the I.T. guy. He stumbles around his words and they converse until the woman sits down. In her assistants chair. Cat purses her lips, waiting to see how it would play out, it seems the woman is familiar with her assistant, though Cat received no warnings of a visitor today.

She watches the unknown woman sets some papers down, thick and small print, possibly research papers, red ink scribble along the margins of some. She watches the woman as she pulls out a toy for the kid, gleaming metal and bright colors. The woman sits there, writing on the paper with her right hand and balancing the child with her left, used to sitting with the child on her lap then. The IT hobbit looks up to her office a few times and Cat glares back. Waiting, tapping her pen against her lip.

Finally the assistant, Kara, comes at an almost run down the hall, blonde hair fluttering behind her, glasses slipping down her nose and long legs moving quickly. Blue eyes dart to her desk and Cat watches her blink in shock, then look at the time on the wall, face falling before it grows bright. She bounces to the desk, says something quickly to the other woman there that Cat can't make out, pressing fingers to the child's knee before rushing into Cat's office. "Miss Grant." Her smile is as bright as ever. "Here's the layouts and the reports." Kara fishes out a bag seemingly out of nowhere as she lays the papers on the corner of the desk. "And your lunch, kale on the side. No cheese and plenty of tomatoes."

Cat hums lowly as Kara sets it down in front of her, Kara tilts her head, shifting on her feet and Cat lets her stew in nerves a little before speaking. "Are you suppose to be somewhere Kiera?"

Kara's eyes dart back to the woman who is watching Cat and Kara with narrowed eyes, hand rubbing soothing circles on the child's shoulder. "Um, I made plans for lunch but lost track of time." Kara pushes her glasses up her nose but doesn't correct the wrong name like she had for the first three weeks.

Cat purses her lips and leans back in her chair, survey the woman and child through the glass before looking at her assistant again, waits a few seconds, watches Kara shift her feet, before she speaks. "Plans I take it that involved the two sitting at your desk?"

Kara fiddles with her glasses again. "Well, yes. I broke my phone this morning and couldn't text Alex that i'd be late to lunch." And her assistant's hands are moving _again,_ motioning like they always are. "Oriana gets cranky when she doesn't get her food so I thought she'd get lunch without me."

Cat waves her hand dismissively at the door. "Hmm, well get the child out of my floor before she throws a fit then." And Cat stares at the clench to Kara jaw, some steel under that Sunny Danvers persona it seems. "And get a watch, I don't need any germs brought up here if you forget again."

Kara nods tersely before darting out into the bullpen. She presses a quick kiss to the other woman's cheek before grabbing the child from her arms. The girl, Oriana, glowers at her assistant, frown marring her face. Cat recognizes that look, the one a child gives when a parent has broken a promise. One she had recognized from her mirror as a child. One she had seen on Carter's face once or twice before she got herself together. 

The other woman, Alex she supposes, remarks something lowly that has Kara blushing and Oriana huffing. Alex rubs at a spot on Oriana's cheek before stuffing the papers and the toy, a Rubik's cube, now finished, Cat notes, into the bag and slinging it over her shoulders. She grabs Kara's purse, tilting her chin and they make their way out the door, Alex's hand coming up to steady Kara's shoulders when Oriana yanks at blonde hair. Long fingers poke into sensitive sides and the child is finally laughing, small squeals and chuckles.

Cat purses her lips, the blonde gets more interesting as the days go by. Lasting longer than most, two and a half months now, and having a kid by the looks of it. Something she wouldn't have guessed but the sunny disposition makes sense now. Cat scowls. Her reporter skills are getting rusty it seems.

* * *

* * *

* * *

There's cries that startle both Alex and Kara awake later that night, they both scramble from bed, Kara super-speeding over to Oriana who wails loud enough to start shattering the glasses in the kitchen. Kara begins to speak kryptonian, soothing and low as she picks Oriana up. Small hands rip through the shoulders of Kara's t-shirt as Oriana continues to wails. Crying out for her mother in intervals and beating her tiny fist against Kara's shoulder in anger and sorrow. _"Little one."_ And Kara's voice cracks across the words. 

Alex moves into the kitchen, they're staying in Kara's apartment currently, previously Alex's, at least until they can find and afford something better. Maybe a place that had walls. Alex grabs the apple juice Oriana is so partial to from the fridge, pouring it into a thick metal sippy cup that Kara had bent and crafted with her heat vision and hands. Strong enough to withstand Oriana's stronger than human grip and teeth.

When she gets back to where Oriana was, Kara is kneeling on the floor by the child's bed, completely curved around Oriana as she rocks her back and forth. Murmuring prayers to Rao, something Astra had once done to Kara. Alex kneels down, waits until she hears the ending verse of the prayer die off. "Here." Kara shoots her a grateful look as she passes the sippy to Oriana. Oriana is still sniffing, eyes rimmed red and Alex's heart breaks. Oriana grabs the cup, stuffing it into her mouth to guzzle down the apple juice. Chubby hands rub at tired eyes and Kara floats gently, flying to the bed. Alex follows, turning off the light she had flicked on before falling back into the king sized bed she and Kara had ended up sharing, the apartment too small for more than one, especially with a section of it turned into a 'room' for Oriana. 

Oriana whines when Kara shifts, dropping the sippy and clutching at Kara. Kara murmurs soft words again and Alex moves slowly, picking up the sippy before beginning to rub at Oriana's back. She begins to settle, sniffling still but taking the sippy with one hand, the other clutching at Kara. She murmurs tired and sorrowful words to them, lilting kryptonian accent inhibited by childlike ways. Kara curls around her and Alex lays back down, throwing the blanket over the three of them. The heartbreak is back in Kara's eyes, like she's reliving the explosion of Krypton all over again. Alex shifts closer, until Oriana is pressed into her front, between Alex and Kara. Kara lets out a shuddering breath, free hand coming to scrabble at Alex's before tightening. Alex begins to hum, soft and low in her throat like she used to do when Kara' had first landed, months after the car explosion. Kara lets out a shuddering breath as Oriana sniffs begin to die down and they fall asleep like this.


	3. A Lost World (Part One)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex would do anything for Kara, give up everything she ever knew for Kara. She didn't expect it to be this hard though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So um lots of angst... This is only part one of I have no clue how many parts but it only gets angstier. So I apologize in advance.

Alex is curled around Kara's prone form. Blue eyes are listless and wide open. Blonde hair dark with dirt and blood. Chest still. Green emits from the space above her heart, blood staining the blue of her suit and coating the black tactical gear Alex wears. Alex looks up at the noise of crunching glass, hazel eyes glistening with tears. A figure in black robes stands with the hood on their head, hands tucked into the sleeves. "You can turn back time, I know you have the power. Save her." Alex's voice cracks as her hands tighten on Kara's shoulders.

The hood shifts as the figure looks down at the lifeless form of National City's superhero. "I cannot change what was and is without consequence."

"I don't _care."_ Her shoulders shake and a tear falls down a bloodied cheek. "Whatever it takes, do it!"

The woman tilts her head to the side, shadows flickering over her hidden face as she calculates. "I can make it to where her pain is limited. Where she'll get everything she ever needed. She'll have everything she ever wanted when she first landed on Earth. Tell me Alexandra Danvers." The woman bends down to meet Alex's watering eyes, her own hold flickers of secrets as big as the galaxy. "Are you willing to sacrifice for her?"

"Yes." Alex sobs out, tears dripping down her face and she trembles, clutching Kara's form to her own, warm kryptonian heat giving way to the cold of death. "Yes, I would give my life for her."

"It is not your life I am asking." She skims her hand over both of them, tilting her head as she stares at Alex. "But memories."

Alex looks up sharply, chin tilted. Blood leaks from a wound on her head, thick and dripping until it falls in red drops from her chin, catching on Kara's face and suit.  _"Anything."_

"Very well. I cannot change the course of those that have not touched Earth, but she will live." The woman pauses, her voice deepening, more guttural and alien than any Alex had heard before as her hands glow, moving over a still crying Alex and prone Kara. Under the mysterious figures hood her eyes glow an eery white-blue. "And _she_ will forget." Alex looks up sharply, tears stopping, eyes widening. "Good luck Alexandra Danvers, the world as you know it is no more." Her finger stop at Kara's heart, glowing over the wound and the fingers of her other hand press against Alex's temple in a gentle caress, blood staining the cold dark hand.

There is a searing light around them and Alex tries to cling to Kara. Tries to hold onto her as her head sears with pain. Every memories she had ever had since Kara got to Earth flashes before her eyes and her head pounds as twin images and memories are forced into her head, conflicting with the world she grew up with. Superman showing up at her house, she watches, unknown to her parents. He is alone but he explains things with soft words and frantic hands. Slicing her arm open at the beach, tripping over a stray ball. Reading all her parents reports in the lab when they are at work, learning kyrptonian to her father's pride. Sitting on the roof and staring at the stars, an empty feeling deep in her chest. Someone knocking on the door late at night when her dad gets back from a _business_ trip. Honor classes that don't challenge her enough. The waves under her palms and a board beneath her feet and an _empty_ spot beside her. Her mother's words of disappointment at an A- on the honors math class test her sophomore year. The call in the middle of the night and her mother's sobbing. The tightness in her chest and the aching in her heart. Her father's funeral, a man with thick glasses and messy black hair, broad shoulders too large for his dark suit. His eyes are mournful and so very blue as he stands in the back. There's another man, dark skin, thick hair and all too knowing eyes filled with grief. Alex stonic as ever, her mother's clenched jaw and trembling hands with no one to hold them too tight. 

Parties where she can loose the feeling of emptiness. Her 4.0 remaining so even as her life spirals out of control. Her mother screaming at her when she comes home at 4 in the morning, slumping against the wall barely able to hold her head up Alex screams. "I miss him too!" Early admission to college despite the drinking underage. The dean's list. Drinking until everything is numb again. Tests. Calls from her mother she ignores. Calls from her mother she answers. Graduating. An empty seat where her father should be, and one next to his that makes her ache for some unknown reason. Going to National City and working in a lab. Secretly studying what her father had been working on before he died. Already knowing the answers.

She watches the news. Watches Superman save another person in Metropolis. The red cape fluttering behind him, eyes bright blue, hair slicked back. Clark Kent on Lois Lane's arm, all unkempt hair and thick glasses, broad shoulders and other-worldly blue eyes hidden behind those glasses. Making the connection easily, her father's notes in her hands and her mother's ringtone going unanswered. Constant migraines. The recruitment from the DEO when they come into her lab, Hank all stern words and a purpose at the tip of her hands. Everything is different yet the _same._  

Blackness creeps around the edges of her vision and her hold on Kara falter, skin growing warmer under her touch before everything fades to black and pain spikes in her skull.

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

Alex slams on the breaks of the medical van and the transport van behind her skids to a stop as well. They run out of the doors and Alex's heart stops. In front of her, in full Supergirl regal is _Kara._ Bloodied and there. Alex whips out her gun when a blur throws Kara across the asphalt and she opens fire without hesitation. The kryptonite bullets rips into the man pinning Kara to the ground and spitting harsh words into her face. He falls with a howl of pain, writhing on the ground and trying to fly away but failing. The other alien, a non-kryptonian, is flooded with electricity from three of her agents and falls with a scream, twitching as the other five agent circle around them and cuff them. 

Alex races forward, falling to her knees in a familiar position, cradling Kara's head and shoulders. "I got you." There's a green glow in her shoulder and Alex heaves Kara into her arms, carries her to the medical van like Kara doesn't weight anything. "Don't worry, I got you." She hits the side of it three times and they are on their way to the DEO, tires rolling under them at a quick speed. Alex pulls the kryptonite out with normally steady hands that can't stop shaking and drops it in a lead lined case. Kara's color returns with the kryptonite hidden away and Alex presses her bloodied hand into her own temple. Memories are slamming into her head over and over again like she hasn't spent the last four weeks remembering and crying. Like she hasn't hunted for Kara in every data base for every second since she woke up with duel memories. Hadn't ached over the fact that she remembered and no one else did.

She catches her breath, checking over Kara for injuries when the van jolts suddenly and she slams into the wall, Kara thankfully strapped down and secure. Her head rings and there is the tearing of metal as the doors are ripped off the hinges and thrown. Alex reaches for her gun but there is the flash of black before a hand is gripping Alex's throat and pinning her to the inside of the van' side. Alex pales when she spots the wild white streak in dark hair and a face twisted into a snarl. The mysterious figure had done more than brought Kara back from the dead. She had reset _everything._ Alex struggles for air as the words of the figure haunt her. ' _I cannot change the course of those that have not touched Earth, but she will live.'_  She had brought Astra back from the dead. Given Kara the family she longed for when she first landed on earth. Erased the one thing that had made Alex feel like a monster.

Her head is ringing from the clash of two completely different memories. The same amount of time had passed but everything had changed. The Fort Rozz escapees didn't attack the plane she was on. Kara didn't become Supergirl that night and Astra was  _alive._ The headache intensifies and Astra's lips are moving but Alex can only hear ringing in her ears. The room is spinning until Astra releases her. She crumples to the floor, clutching at her head. Kara is sitting up and speaking in fast Kryptonian at Astra. The woman scowls but nods stiffly, brushing a strand of Kara's hair behind her ear. Kara looks to Alex, her lips move but Alex is still reeling from Astra being alive, her brain combating with itself in shock. Kara turns angrily to her aunt, face twisted in rage as she yells at her. Astra shakes her head, murmuring something Alex can't hear with the ringing in her ears and the throbbing of her head.

Alex shakes her head, pulls in a deep breath and focuses on the beep of Kara's heart machine as her senses come back to her and her brain filters that Astra is alive and well in front of her. "I'm fine." Her voice is rough and she uses wall of the van to get up, Astra scowls at her and Kara grins. There is no recognition in her eyes and Alex ducks her head as her heart plummets. "You should get some sun, you'll heal better."

"And you know of this how?" Astra steps closer, threatening.

Alex tilts her chin high but doesn't look at either of them, chest concaving with heartache. "I study alien species."

Astra looks more alien then ever as her muscle tense like steel and her teeth bare. _"Liar,_ you bring them in and dissect them."

Alex breaks. "I am not Cadmus!" Her chest heaves and her limbs tremble. "I am not those monsters." Everything is too sharp right now, the rage in her chest, the ache, everything is too close to the surface. Too soon.

Astra stares at her with a familiar tilt to her head. "You are braver than most."

Alex relaxes at those familiar words, falls into a familiar setting. "My boss says reckless."

Kara is smiling and Alex stares at her before turning her around to pick things up off the floor from the abrupt stop. "You'll want to leave before they send in back up, as long as none of my men are dead you guys should be fine."

Astra scoffs, every bit superior as she once was, though Kara's hand on her forearm still the advancing of her feet. "You think you could hurt us?"

"No, but others might. You need to be careful." Alex swallows, refusing to look at them with tears in her eyes. Her chest feels like it will cave in. "The army doesn't like aliens. Be wary." Astra narrows her eyes as Kara stares at Alex with a confused curious look on her face.

"You work for the government." Astra's words are skeptical and wary.

"Technically who I work for doesn't exist. You should go." The two stare at her and Alex spins, slamming her hands on the table. "GO!" Her entire form trembles and Astra glares at her, pulling a worried Kara from the back of the van. Alex slumps against the wall until she hits the floor of the van, sobbing as she tilts her head back. It was the first time she had seen Kara face to face since she had watched her die. Wiping at her tears she gathers herself together, grabbing her radio. "This is Trap Team One, calling Foxtrot."

"This is Foxtrot." J'onn's voice is familiar even in Hank's body and she trembles. 

"The kryptonian was saved." And she forces her voice to stay even, not to tremble. "She left shortly after waking, I have the two prisoners that attacked the girl."

There's a pause over the comms before Hank begins speaking again. "She a Fort Rozz prisoner?"

"No sir, just a kid, barely twenty-four." She lets her head drop back against the wall of the van. "Full Superman get-up."

There's a grumble over the comms, she knows Hank is probably making a face at having another caped Superhero. "Do you need transport Agent Danvers?"

"No sir, we'll be there soon." She stands up slowly, grabbing the driver and checking his pulse. He is fine, knocked unconscious from Astra's forceful stop. She latches down everything and shoves the torn van doors into the back of the van with a grunt. The gurney rolls in place mockingly at her and she drives back to the DEO, meeting up at the rendezvous point with the prison transport. She gets some raised eyes but she waves them off.

The two prisoners are shoved into cells and Alex fills out her report, leaving out Astra and writing the kryptonian come too and burst out of the van. The driver fell unconscious when he hit his head due to the force of her flying out of the van. She zip the collar of her uniform up to hide the red forming there. Finishing that she heads to her lab, working on a device to protect against mind control. Tweaking the previous model. Looking for a better protection against creatures like Jedd. Against things like Myriad. There's a knock on her door and she looks up, Lucy winks at her. "Ready for the spar Danvers?"

A small smirk slips across half of Alex's lips, its still awkward, looking at a Lucy that doesn't remember what she does. A Lucy who didn't save her and J'onn from Cadmus. "When did I agree to this?"

"You're tense, i'm tense." Lucy's eyebrow wiggle and there laughter in her voice. "We need to let loose."

"Why're you tense?" Alex puts away her things, labeling them and finishing her notes quickly with her shorthand.

Lucy lets out a huff. "Dinner with my father."

Alex snorts. "How'd that go?"

"Still mad i'm at the DEO." Her shoulders shrug. "But we're working on it."

Alex eyes her,s tiff with memories of General Lane from a previous world. "He ask you to spy yet?"

Lucy laughs, shaking her head. "Multiple times."

"And?"

"And I told him all about it Alex." Lucy rolls her eyes, there's a glint in them. "I'm a legal counsel as well, I know the breach of contract if I tell my father anything."

Alex stares at her, looking for the Lucy who knew Kara's secret, who defied all orders to _save_ them. "That the only thing keeping you from spilling your guts?"

"No, I like working here." Lucy's words are terse but truthful and Alex find her Lucy in there, not so different than the other, just a different set of memories. "I'm actually doing something, plus I've kept how many of your prisoners from going to my father or his friends?"

"Plenty." Alex stares at her, heart in her eyes. "Thank you."

Lucy looks taken aback by the emotion there before she smiles softly. "Buy me a drink and we're even."

Alex leads Lucy out of the door. "Only if you can pin me."

The soft smile morphs into a smirk. "Oh, you're on Danvers."

* * *

Alex finds Vasquez later that night working on the computers like she always is. "I need a favor."

She lifts her gaze to find Alex's. "Is it a secret favor?"

Alex lets out a sharp breath, hands twitching at her side. "No one can know."

Vasquez raises an eyebrow, staring impassively at the other agent. "Anything dangerous?"

Alex chews on her lip, before shaking her head. She could trust Vasquez, always could even without her memories from before. "Not currently, but no one, not even Henshaw, can know."

The other agent looks apprehensive but turns fully to speak to Alex. "What am I doing?"

"Looking at a prisoner for me from Fort Rozz." And Alex's hands refuse to twitch or tremble. "Run facial recognition for me once we find them."

Vasquez narrows her eyes, tapping her fingers along the desk before she speaks. "And I keep secret what we find?"

"I'll owe you one." And Vasquez stares at Alex like she's debating it even as she pulls up the Fort Rozz database and Alex lets out a huff. "If Henshaw finds out i'll talk to him, but no one else can know."

"Agent Danvers." There's glint in her eyes, almost teasing. "This sounds like it could get us reprimanded."

"I'll take the blame." Alex types in the prisoner number quickly, having memorized it in the other life. Nothing pops up. "That should have worked."

"Some of the filing was damaged in the crash." Vasquez stares at the number before turning to face Alex again. "You need that prisoner's face, you know th-."

"No." Alex rubs her hands across her thighs. "Forget it, we have no information on her. We can't find out who she is."

"She acclimated to human life?" Vasquez begins to close the Fort Rozz database down, easily erasing what they had just looked up. "She blends in?"

Alex lets her fit clench then unclench. "Pretty sure."

"We found nothing so I have nothing to keep quiet. Go home Alex, put some ice on your neck." Alex looks up sharply at the other Agent and Vasquez lets out a soft smile, gone is the teasing. "You forgot to zip up after your shower. Go home, sleep."

"Only if you do too." Alex itches to press a hand to her friends shoulder, always so steady, even without all the memories Alex had Vasquez is still the same. Still loyal to a fault and still steady. "You've been here as long as I have Susan."

"Yeah." And there's a wry twist to the other agent's lips. "But neither of us has anything waiting for us at home."

Alex ducks her head swallowing. "No, I guess we don't."

Vasquez grins softly now. "See you tomorrow Danvers, bright and early."

Alex smiles back, just barely a quirk of her lips but its something. "See you tomorrow Vasquez."

* * *

Her apartment is dark when she gets there and everything is pressing on her head but she slumps on her couch, grabbing a bottle off the counter. Her head throbs and the migraine she had grown accustom to comes flaring forward again. She clutches at her head and gulps down a few swallows of the whiskey in her hand. Within minutes her head is fuzzy and the ache is something of the past. Rubbing at her eyes she falls into her bed, unmade and messy. Her gun is sitting on the side table and her boots hit the floor with a grunt from her.

* * *

* * *

* * *

Alex wakes to the blaring of her alarm and she shuts it off, yanking on running clothes and bolting out the door even as her head swims around the edges of a hangover. Her feet pound against the pavement in time with her heart and the skies are dark, slowly pinking as the sun breaks the horizon and glows between the buildings. Sweat gathers at her back and there are sirens at the edges of her hearing, turning on a dime she follows the sound, firetruck wailing and people screaming. She skids to a stop when a flash of blue and red with a hint of gold barrels into the building. Her heart catches in her throat and her chest stills as she watches the flames dance.

A man is deposited screaming before the firefighters douse the flames climbing up his coat. A woman and child set down next to him before the building creaks and there is a man's scream and the flames consume even more of the old wood before the ground shakes. Supergirl bends down to set the guy down before blowing the flames away, frost forming and melting at the edges of the wood. The smoke dies out and Supergirl waves before bolting to the sky. Alex looks at the man cradling his arm. "She picked me up and it broke." His voice is rough with pain but there is no anger in his eyes as the medic observe him before setting him in the back of the ambulance. Alex grit her teeth, memories from before slamming into her head. 

The snap of her arm when Kara pulls her towards the swings. The crack of her nose when Kara wakes from a nightmare and headbutts her. The bruising along her ribs from Kryptonian hugs. Kara and Alex never had that in this 'Earth' in this set of memories Kara never practiced being human. Alex rubs at her temples before running the rest of the way to her apartment and slamming the door. The shower is cold and soothing against her head before she rushes out of the shower, texting Vasquez that she'd be late and to let Hank know. She dries her hair quickly and rushes out the door, boots slamming against the ground as she zips her leather jacket up.

She pulls a helmet on her head and easily starts her motorcycle, it rumbles to life before she tears down the road, blood flooded with anger and fear as she checks the one place she swore to never set foot in.

Once her motorcycle is parked and helmet off she storms into CatCo, her entire body vibrating. Everything is still the same, from the elevator, to the guard to the gaudy pink cat to the familiar way to what was Kara's desk for almost three years. "I need to speak to Kara." Her words are terse as she finds the first person she can, right outside the elevator door and looking to head down.

She recognizes Winn, his broad strong jaw and fluffy hair, his eyes narrow in confusion and suspicion like they did the first time she walked into CatCo in the past. It makes something inside her ache at the similarities. "Kara Zorel?"

Alex stalks past him, ignoring him but confirming her suspicions of where Kara worked. She moves past familiar desks, freezing when she spots Kara, not Supergirl, arguing with Cat in her office, a picture of Supergirl and her chosen name behind them, large and proud. "At least some things never change." Alex murmurs quietly.

Kara walks out of the room with a huff, she's not slouched in this world. Too straight back, military-esque like Astra. Her jaw is tilted high but she still has that awkward stumble to her step, like she's focusing on walking without floating. Her eyes are too sharp to be human but there is that compassion that always managed to shine through. She meets Alex's gaze and stumbles suddenly, fiddling with glasses on her face. They are so similar to the ones her father made in the previous earth that it makes her chest aches. "Can." Kara pauses, swallowing. "Can I help you?"

Alex runs her tongue over her teeth. "I need to speak to you." She shoots a look at Cat and Winn, who are both staring at them curiously. "Privately."

"Sure." Kara leads her to an empty room, shifting nervously. "Do you need an appointment with Miss Grant or need speak to legal about something?"

Alex shakes her head, staring at Kara. Drinking in the differences and the _similarities._ "You know why i'm here."

Kara fiddles with her glasses. "I have no idea what your talking about."

And god her lying was better here, her eyes still held panic and her fingers still twitched awkwardly but her voice was even. None of that awkward laughing and too wide smiles. Alex pulls down the neck of her shirt, showing the bruises there. "You know why i'm here."

Kara falters at that, stepping back just enough to put a few more centimeters between them. "What, why?"

Alex forces a glare on her face, tries to remain stonic in the face of someone who she knew everything about. Someone she had spent half her life with who can't remember a thing about her. "You need to stop."

Kara furrows her eyes shaking her head and pointing at Alex's throat with twitchy fingers. "I didn't do anything."

Alex lets out a huff, forces harshness into her word just to hide the panic. "You cannot be Supergirl."

Blue eyes flash with defiance, so familiar it shatters Alex's heart even more. "You can't tell me what to do." And Kara tilts her chin and its reminiscent of the night Alex went to go night surfing and Kara came along, refusing to stay home. Following after Alex to make sure nothing hurt her, chin tilted high and eyes bright with challenge like they are now.

Alex shakes her head, hands threatening to shake even as her voice remains steady. "Your life is in danger."

And Kara stiffens, her eyes darken and there is the hint of a hum. Of heat-vision getting ready to activate and the air around them thickens with it. "Are you threatening me?"

"NO!" Alex grabs at her hair, frustrated tears fill her eyes. "I cannot protect you forever." Her world is falling apart around her head, Kara bloodied on the ground, the blinding light and ache of the world changing all around her. "Someone else will get wind of you and when they do it will not be pretty! You need to stop, this is dangerous."

"I have the power to save people." And Kara softens in front of her, like she's already figured Alex out after five minutes of talking to her. "I can make a difference doing what I can."

Alex's chest aches and her head pounds like it's going to explode. "Not if it endangers you."

"Why do you care?" Kara stares at her curiously, searching Alex's face for answers, like Alex is an enigma.

Alex swallows, shaking her head and fighting past the memories, forcing herself to stay in the now. Hands trembling. "You are risking not only your life but your aunt's as well."

Kara shifts, her face morphing in rage and she speeds over to Alex, looming over her but not touching her. "How do you know about my aunt?" There's that hidden fury, that desperate protectiveness. So familiar and consuming.

Alex swallows, this is Kara but it isn't and Alex treads carefully, Kara's always had a short fuse when it came to family. Always zero to sixty when a threat was found. "If I know about her tie to you and where to find you imagine what the other places can find out if you continue this."

There's the hum and the static in the air of her heat vision bordering activation again and her voice is thick with rage. "You didn't answer my question."

"We have all information pertaining to Fort Rozz." It's a lie but her heart doesn't betray her, her voice doesn't crack and this Kara doesn't know how to read between the lines. Doesn't know how to read Alex.

Kara stiffens and that familiar hard edge is in her voice. The edge of someone who has lost everything once and won't lose it again. "You won't take her way from me, I won't _let_ you."

Alex shifts her feet but doesn't back away, this close she can smells the way the sky clings to Kara's hair and skin. The way the sun seems to burst from her body, warm where all Alex could remember was the cold. "I'm not trying to, but others will. Please don't risk hers and your life like this."

Kara furrows her brow, almost scoffing but she remains steadfast, glaring at Alex. "We're fine."

"I know she had to tell you the trouble the government can cause!" Alex throws her hands wide, angry and expressive as ever. "Why are you so ignorant of this?"

Kara laughs in the face of danger like she always had, like she was _indestructible._ "They won't take down Supergirl, they don't go after Superman."

And that is a lie if she has ever heard one, Alex knows it to be false. Lived the life where Kara thought she was safe and indestructible. That nothing could touch her. "Because the people loved him by the time they had the weapons to take him down!"

"And the people don't love me?" There's a familiar look in her eyes, of not being enough, of being less than. It breaks Alex's heart to recognize that look.

"You have been Supergirl for two days, you could disappear and the world would be curious but they wouldn't care. So I am asking you." Alex's voice threatens to crack now, to break open her chest and spill all her worries and fears out. "Disappear, by yourself, before someone makes that decision for you."

Kara squares her shoulders back, chin tilted high. "Someone like you?"

"I am trying to _protect_ you." And her voice cracks this time, threatens to spill everything she had kept hidden for so long.

This time Kara steps closer, eyes darting across Alex's face. Searching. "Why?" And she earnest and curious and hopeful all tangled in one.

Alex shakes her head, rubbing at her face. "Just _please,_ stop."

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

One week later

The kryptonian throws her through a window and the pieces slice where her tactical suit doesn't protect her. And the concrete floor and glass shards digs into her cheek as she rolls to a stop, her helmet left uselessly on the floor a few feet away, strap torn and camera shattered. She shakes her head, rolling to her feet shakily. "We can integrate you into society, it doesn't have to be like this." 

The man laughs as he flies through the window, slamming onto the floor next to her. The floor shudders and cracks around them with the force of it. "I've seen what happens when someone goes to a lab, i'll kill myself before I go with you _human_." He picks her up by her vest, crushing the back up gun she was going for in his hand. He falters at the kryptonite before he throws it away from them. She kicks out, hitting him while he is slower, weakened by that small proximity to the green glow. He grunts and she slams her tactical boot into his crotch before grabbing a meal pipe and slamming it into his head. The kryptonite is out of the room by this time and the pipe bends around his head and her arms ring. He grabs Alex by her throat, growling before shooting to the sky, straight through the roof. She claws at him as wood splinters around them, spitting at his face as they fly higher and higher. He sneers at her, eyes glowing and face twisted in hate. "You'll be nothing but a bloodstain when I drop you." 

The air whips around them and it's harder to breath but Alex grits her teeth and sneers back at him. _"Fuck_ you."

He laughs at her and opens his mouth to speak when he is hit. Hard. His grip loosens but not before his fingers crack a bone in her forearm. She lets out a howl of startled pain but the air sucks it away as she falls. She reaches for the release on her vest but he crushed it sometime while they were fighting. "Fuck. Fuck." She scrambles for the back up release but the parachute won't deploy. The air whips around her, stinging her eyes. Swallowing she braces herself for inevitable death when she hits something hard enough to push the air from her body. Her head spins and there is a creak and pop of her bones before she is falling again. A blur of red and blue faltering in the air before those too hard hands grip her shoulder again. Her bones protest and she groans in pain. This Kara never learned how to handle humans and their fragility. They hit the ground hard enough to rattle Alex's teeth. Alex's feet not touching the ground until Kara sets her down cautiously. 

Alex attempts to pull air into her abused lungs, clutching at her arm as she falls to her knees, the world is spinning and blue eyes stare at her in worry. "Are you okay?"

"Fine Kar. Winded." The words are panted out as she slows her pained and panicked breathes.

Kara shuffles, eyeing her curiously, hands hovering as if to touch her again. "Most people would say thank you."

Alex laughs but groans in pain when her ribs protest. "You need to work on handling humans while flying."

"Its not like I ever took anyone flying before." Kara grumbles out. Alex's heart lances in pain at the reminded and she barely keeps it from flashing across her face. Kara catches it anyway. "Are you okay?"

Alex grits her teeth and focuses on breathing through the pain. "I'm fine."

Kara x-rays her anyway. "Did I break your arm?"  Her eyes are dark with guilt.

"No, he did."

 Kara surveys her again. "Your right arm is broken, your ribs cracked." There's a familiar clench to her jaw and drop in her voice as she points out the injuries. "Your left shoulder is slightly dislocated and you're bleeding everywhere."

"I was thrown through a window." Alex grunts out as she searches for her radio. "I was fighting a kryptonian."

Kara furrows her brow, staring at a drop of blood slipping from Alex's cheek down to drip off of her chin and splatter into the sand. "You are so _breakable."_ And its a quiet revelation, like Kara's just learning it.

"You sound like your aunt." Alex snorts, then grimaces in pain as the motion forces her ribs to throb. 

Kara narrows her eyes, staring at Alex like she was a bomb wrapped in bows now. "How would you know?"

Alex sighs, fiddling with the busted radio she had finally found. "Never mind that, thanks for the save Supergirl."

Kara steps closer to Alex, lips twitching into a rueful nervous smile, fingers wiggling as her eyebrow arches high in question. "We're miles from any back up, do you need a ride?"

Alex surveys the area around them, catching dust in the distance and the lack of the kryptonian she was fighting. "Did you take him out or did he escape?"

The superheros stiffens. "I was preoccupied with saving you to chase after him."

Alex huffs quietly, grimacing as she shifts to hook the broken radio back to her belt. "Well considering the DEO wanted me to bring him in you need to go."

And Kara glares at her in confusion and suspicion. "Why?"

Alex tilts a bloodied chin to the incoming dust and tan vehicles. "See those trucks in the distance?"

Kara narrows her eyes, zooms in to see the tan Humvees coming their way, guns drawn and a green glow to them. "Yeah."

"Those are military, not DEO." There's a dark look hidden in Alex's eyes as she glares at the incoming vehicles. Kara tilts her head to the side as she survey her. "They'll want an unregistered Kryptonian, probably expecting me to have the one I was fighting. I'm out of my jurisdiction out here."

Kara furrows her brow, always so good and confused. "I saved you."

"Doesn't matter." That dark look is heady and consuming on the agent's face as she glares at the incoming transport. "They see you as a threat, go."

Kara tilts her head to the side as Alex stands up slowly, wincing with each breath. "Why are you telling me this?"

"You don't deserve what they'll do to you. Kryptonite." Alex winces in sympathy and guilt this time. "It's not pleasant."

Kara nods in understanding, tensing her legs to take off before staring at the woman before her, bleeding and wheezing with each breath. "Get your wounds treated."

"I'll be fine. Go." Kara takes off with one last look to the human.

* * *

* * *

Alex winces as she shuts her door, the pain in her arm is agonizing and her ribs ache. The stitches pull every-which way and she throws the pill bottles on the coffee table, forgoing taking them and the dreams they bring. The memories they unlock. She grabs the bottle of whiskey as her head continues to throb and pours a glass. "I thought you weren't suppose to drink alcohol with pain pills."

Alex jumps, the sound of glass smashing as she spin, ripping her gun from its holster with her left hand with a grit of teeth at the pull in her shoulder and aiming at the shadow in her living room. Kara's blonde hair is bright in the darkness, Alex lets her arm drop to the side. "I thought your aunt was the only one to lurk in the shadows."

Kara tilts her head to the side, eyeing her with alien intensity. "You talk about my aunt like you know her."

Alex lets out a sigh, all she wants is to be oblivious tonight. Forget everything, even the face of the woman before her. "What are you doing here?"

"Checking on you." Kara tilts her head to the whiskey bottle and the smashed glass of alcohol. "Which I see was warranted."

Alex scowls, feeling too much like old times. Kara's worried purse of her lips and Alex shoving bottles into hiding. "I am an adult."

Kara scoffs, crossing arms over her chest, the House of El sigil halfway hidden by her arms. "But you're not meant to mix pills and alcohol."

Alex sets her gun on the counter, pouring another drink and throwing a towel over the broken glass and whiskey on the hardwood of her kitchen. "I didn't take my pain pills."

"Why?" Kara zips forward, grabbing the bottle of pain pills and counting them just to be sure as she zips back to the shadows with it in hand.

Alex, not fazed at the super-speed, too used to it from another life, sips at the alcohol. Lets it burn down her throat and settle warm in her stomach. "I don't like the way they make me feel."

Kara tilts her head to the side, eyeing the bottle of whiskey next. "But doesn't alcohol have a similar effect?"

"I can control how much I drink." And it feels like a familiar argument, she knows she's had it before with someone, drunk off her ass. "I know my limits."

Kara scoffs, the pill bottle creaking in her hand before she sets it down, this time on the side table she is near. "But the doctors that prescribe you the pills don't?"

Alex sighs, shoulders dropping as she gulps down another two fingers of the whiskey. "Why are you here Supergirl?"

"You know my name, why don't you use it? _Kara."_ Alex flinches, turning around to pour another drink as Kara eyes her curiously and plows forward with all the tact of a kryptonian. "See, you do that a lot. You won't say my name and you never want to look at me." Kara steps out of the shadows again, slowly this time, the moonlight dancing across her shoulders and hair. "What did I do that was so bad?"

Alex refuses to look at her, hands tight on the glass in front of her. "You didn't do anything, thank you for checking up on me." She downs another glass, feels the migraine begin to recede with the alcohol coating her stomach and flooding her veins. "I'm going to bed."

Kara steps closer, eyes wide with worry, hands reaching out and it reminds her of when she broke her arm, loopy from the pain killers at the hospital and stumbling up the stairs, Kara hovering behind her. "You just consumed alcohol."

Alex pinches the bridge of her nose, mindful of the scratches there. "Yes, I know." And it aches to talk to a Kara that doesn't remember.

"You could die in your sleep from alcohol poisoning."

Alex shrugs, shoving the bottle in the cabinet and moving around her apartment like there wasn't a primary colored elephant in the room. "I didn't drink that much."

"You don't know that." And she has that high lit to her voice, the one that means she's worried. It makes Alex  _ache._

"Did you look up everything about humans health or what?" Alex bends down gathering up the soiled towel and the glass on the floor and the sarcasm hurts when it leaves her lips so she softens her voice, unable to lash out at a Kara that is worried. "I'll be fine."

"You guys are so fragile, I know the partial dislocation was due to my catching you." Kara watches the human dump the glass in the trash can, and wrings her hands together in a nervous habit that she had since she landed on earth. An unknown tic she doesn't know where she picked up. "I thought I might figure out how to better care for humans."

"Why?" There's a crack to Alex's voice, one that makes Kara want to sooth the woman. Cradle her in her too strong arms and shield her from the world. From the hurt. "You won't be saving me anymore."

Kara smile is familiar to Alex like almost everything about her. It's teasing and bright, trying to make the other woman grin with her. "You don't know that, you deal with aliens and I'm an alien."

"Just _stop,_ please." Alex rubs at her face, this was all so confusing. She wanted to hug Kara, hold her until she couldn't let go but at the same time staring at a Kara who didn't remember her. Who didn't share the memories filling her head hurt. God it was relieving to see her alive and happy but it hurt enough to make her chest feel like it was cracking wide open.

Kara tilts her head, staring at Alex with a soft confused gaze. "Why is there so much pain in your eyes? Its like you've lost your whole world." Kara shifts, smiling wanly as she steps closer. "I should know, I lost mine."

"Not everyone though." And there's a shift in the human's heart rate, a skip that Kara can hear beat against her ears like a symphony. One that Kara had followed when she heard it unexpectedly speed up. Honed to it for some reason Kara can hear each pump of blood and quickening of it, hears it falter like there was something more to Alex's words. "You have your aunt."

Kara listens to the heart steady, alcohol is thick and heady in the air and Alex's eyes are glazed with it but her heart steadies. "Yes, thankfully. I don't know how I would have survived without her, she's my aunt. I lost my world but gained her." And Kara steps closer, cape fluttering behind her with the wind from the cracked window. "I know why we both have the look in our eyes, but why do you?"

Alex steps back trying to put distance between them, swallowing thickly and her heart quickens again, pressing against Kara's ears. "Can you just leave me be? It doesn't matter."

Kara tilts her head to the side but stops her advancement, curiously she takes in Alex. The taut set to her shoulders, the healing wounds and her eyes. Her eyes hold heartbreak and pain but something like love under that glaze of alcohol. "You care about me for some reason but you shove me away, why?"

Alex throws her glass across the room in a sudden movement, it shatters against the wall and the smell of whiskey is thick in the air. Thicker than before. "Can't you leave me alone! I do not need your puppy dog eyes and soft words." And her chest is heaving, eyes wide and hands shaking. "I need to be left _alone."_

Kara clenches her jaw, nostril flaring. "You are like a two faced dog, as likely to lick me as bite me!" And Kara's own heart is thundering away in her chest, confused and angry at this human who changed at the tip of a hat. "I do not know what your problem is but you need to sort yourself out. Try not to die tonight." Kara flies out of the window. cape fluttering behind her and window left wide ope. Alex slumps against the floor scrubbing her hands over her eyes, stopping any tears that attempt to fall.

"Everything's fine. _Everything's fine."_ Alex rubs at her temples with trembling hands this time, trying to ease the throbbing that has come back. "It was part of the deal, you'll be fine. Just fight it." She thumps her head against the cabinet behind her, closing her eyes and letting everything go.

* * *

* * *

* * *

Astra corners her in an alleyway a few days later when she's out to get coffee and check with some contacts. "My niece is fascinated by you."

And Alex stiffens, there's a puddle of water and oil under her right boot and the sky is dreary for once. A perfect day and place to get chewed out by General Astra. "I'm not seeking her out, I've tried to get her to leave well enough alone." Astra had some similarities to her previous self, flinty eyed and suspicious but observant as always.

"Now why is that?" Astra boxes her in against a brick wall and looms over her.

Alex sighs, rolling her eyes and sipping at her coffee. She's too tired to deal with kryptonians and their power plays. "Being Supergirl is dangerous for both her and you, I recognize that and tried to persuade her to see reason."

Astra laughs, hair pulled tight against her head in a bun, Alex almost reels at the difference of the woman who looks nothing like the warrior she had killed on that roof top. "That shoved her into it more than anything human. She does not like being told what to do."

Alex snorts, and leans her head back against the wall and lets her body relax. She had killed Astra, but there was always something real about talking to her. "I know."

Astra looks at her again, tilting her head and staring like Alex is an enigma, like she had in the warehouse when her finger had traced her cheek. "You are not what I expected an alien hunter to be."

"I don't hunt them." Alex's voice is thick in the way only a kryptonian with super hearing can detect. "I try to help them when I can."

Astra stares at her for a few minutes, seemingly gauging her truthfulness before plowing forward. "Why? You have no ties to them, you have no reason to care for them."

Alex stiffens, memories haunt her and she aches to stop them in this world before they do the same as they did in the previous.  "Nobody deserves to be in a cage. Nobody deserves to be taken by the Army or Cadmus, alien or not."

Astra stiffens, crowding closer to Alex, kryptonian warmth hot against Alex's cold skin, unprepared for the cold dreary day. "So you know them both then?"

"I know what they do, I try to prevent it." Alex's voice threatens to tremble as memories assault her, too many harmful ones that would drag her back into her mind and keep her locked in there. "I keep as many aliens from them I can."

Astra leans back now, giving Alex room to breathe, seemingly recognizing the glassy look in Alex's eyes. "Why?"

There's the dark look that flickers across Alex's face, one Alex has no control over as her body aches in memory and her brain threatens to drag her back there. "They don't deserve to be taken by them."

Astra watches the emotions swirl in hazel eyes and twitch across a healing face, truthful yet there is more hidden under the depths of the Agent's face. Astra watches each emotion, files everything away for later reevaluation.  "You are different than most of your race, brave."

Alex laughs wetly, letting her head thump back against the brick wall. She lets her walls tremble, being honest with Astra was always the best policy. "There's nothing brave about me."

Astra continues to stare at her, the minutes stretch on and the unblinking way she watches Alex is inhuman, alien. Then without prompting she speaks. "Kara will not stop her endeavors, do I have your word that you will protect her?"

"On my life." And Astra doesn't doubt it, not with the human's steady heart and dark eyes, not with the fierce protectiveness she alludes. There is something more to the human Astra notes.

"Farewell then human, be warned." And she crowds her against the wall again, listening to the steady thump of her heart. "I am watching you." Then, without warning, Astra shoots off into the sky, disappearing into the clouds and leaving Alex leaning against the wall below her.

Alex snorts, drops her head back against the brick and closes her eyes. There's a twitching to her lips though. "Comforting."

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

The alarms are blaring and Alex ducks behind a desk as one of the monitor explodes around them. Sparks fly everywhere and Vasquez is tucked near her side, belt looped around her thigh where a shard of glass sticks out and blood leaks. "How'd _he_ get out?"

Vasquez bares her teeth in a grimace. "Sector C went off the grid, a power surge. We don't know what caused it but Demian got out, let the others out and she is _not_ happy."

Alex clicks an earpiece in her ear, pressing Vasquez back into the desk for better coverage from any threats that'll come through the door now that the alien zipping through their monitor is gone, most likely after the other electronic devices, drawn to their power. "This is Danvers, does anybody read?"

"Tick-tock." The voice is soft and teasing with a hint of scorn over the comms. "Tick-tock Agent Danvers. Time is running out."

"Demian." Alex grits her teeth, presses against Vasquez's wound. "What do you want?"

"What everyone wants. _Revenge."_ There a pause and then scornful laughter. "And freedom." A pained howl sounds over the earpiece and there is the boom of bullets and then a crack. Then an eery quiet that rings in their ears. "Give me the one who tore my people apart, my freedom and no more of your men must die."

"He is not here Demian." Alex grits out, checking the weapons at her side and tightening another layer on Vasquez leg before standing with a short nod to the other agent, tilting her head to the tablet on the floor and tapping her ear piece. 

"He was on Rozz! I felt him!" There is another scream over the comms, pained before it cuts off with a gurgle and then silence. "Every lie is another death of your men Danvers."

"Do you feel him now?" Alex watches Vasquez search through the systems. "You must know I am telling the truth."

"You have machine for masking our powers." There is a scream but it tapers off into a pained moan instead of cutting off completely. She hadn't killed the next agent then.

"The computers are down." Alex lies quickly, hoping Vasquez will come through. "Give me fifteen minutes to search the system, i'll find him."

"You gave in too easily Danvers." There is a pained whimper on the other end and Demian sounds suspicious. "How do I know you aren't lying?"

"I know a thing or two about revenge Demian." The thick hatred bleeds into her voice and there is a sharp intake of breath over the comms and the pained moaning stops.

"Very well Agent, you have fifteen minutes." The alien sounds far too pleased and determined. "If I am not given what I want then an agent dies every five minutes after that. Then every one minute. Do not _lie_ to me." 

"Fifteen." Alex creeps around the corner, unsure if anymore of the inmates in Block C got out. She's alone, searching for the person who can end this. The halls are eerily empty, blood staining some of the walls, and god there had to be death in every world didn't there? Refusing to think on memories she continues through the halls, moving to where she knows Hank will be. A secure location where he can let his eyes glow red and where he can find the problems and shut the down.

Exactly where she though she'd find him, she finds him. Tucked inside the armory she Hank is nursing a gunshot wound to the shoulder and his eyes are closed. She bends down and grips his wrist gently and he opens her eyes, she can see the hint of red in them  bleed away as he comes back to his own mind. "I know who you are J'onn, Supergirl is busy saving people in National City from a structural fire and the army would have a field day if we called her, we need you to do what you do best."

He stiffens as he stands and narrows his eyes at her. "I don't know who you think I am Agent Danvers but you follow _my_ command." He leads her to the command room, where she had just come from with swift steps and a harsh look etched to his face. The others in the room look up to him, relieved to see their Director alive and well, their hands move to their gun despite everyone's wounds forcing them to stay off their feet. "Stay here, no one escapes." He glares at Alex, at the ear piece in her ear. "We do not negotiate with _inmates."_ There's something dangerous in his eyes and so very familiar.

She clenches her teeth but holds her tongue as he walks away, hold her mind back from lashing out. Minutes after he is gone an alarm goes off and Demian's voice is in her ear. "Six minutes left Danvers." Alex grabs her gear in preparation, checking her weapons quickly and efficiently.

Another agent speaks up, but his hands are already checking over his own weapon despite the gash to his chest at the cloth tied around his head. "He told us to stay here."

"He told me to let no one escape." And her eyes are grim as she listens to the pained whimpers over the comm and the blaring of sirens. "Sounds like someone's trying to escape. Vasquez anything yet?"

"Yeah, he's down Quadrant 3." And her face is pale but determine. "His people broke a peace treaty between his and Demian's and she killed them all but him."

Alex lets outs a heavy sigh, clicking the safety off her rifle. "And he got his revenge."

Vasquez nods, fingers flying across the pad. "And now she wants hers. They're both the last of their species, the last who remember the feud."

"And we just had to get them both here. Great." She slings another rifle over her shoulder, clicking hand guns into place and pulling in a deep breath. "I'm heading out."

Agent Kunnings follows after her, his face set in grim determination. His steps are quiet despite his wound and he follows Alex without hesitation. The hallways are quiet and Alex finds the alien Demian is looking for in Quadrant 3 right where Vasquez said he was. He is tall, broad and his face a twisting of tentacles and body a grotesque green. He is out of containment unsurprisingly and Demian's is getting impatient over the comms. "One minute Danvers."

"He's with me in the room Demian. Third qu-" Her voice is cut off when the alien tackles her. Kunnings shoots at the alien but a tentacle wraps around his throat and throws him across the room. Kunnings hits the ground with a sick wet thump and Alex moves, pulling a knife from the tac-vest and moving forward with just instincts and rage.

The alien, Niz'al, blocks her blows easily before throwing her across the room. She hits the ground and everything hurts but she gets up still, aims with the rifle and shoots, but the rounds have little effect against his plating. "Are you kidding me!" She taps her comm, dodging around the things he's throwing at around the room at random. "Vas, I need weaknesses!"

"His species works by sound and smell." And she sounds as winded as Alex is. "Eyes for shit."

"Hack the alarms!" She dodges a tentacle  that flies at her when she speaks and then dodges around a roaring Niz'al. "Sound them off in Quad 3." Niz'al is still chasing after her, following her breathing when the alarms begin to blare. Alex presses her back against the wall and lets out a soft sigh.

"Only weak spot is the tentacles, their flesh, the rest is covered by bullet proof plating." And Vasquez sounds too worried for this, like Niz'al was invincible.

"Thanks." And Alex grabs the gun, it's either subdue him or kill him. Her chest aches at the thought of killing him. Weak. She's weak in this instance. He is the last of his kind and he is trapped. He is the last of his kind and all she can think of is Kara speaking kryptonian to the night sky, staring at this red speck in the distance and praying. She had thought she was the last then too.

She shakes herself from memories that had no right being in the middle of a fight and runs forward, pulling out the tranquilizers and moving swiftly to the screeching alien. His tentacles are flailing widely, searching for her as the slits on his face flare for her scent. She manages to get a tranq in the soft flesh by his tentacle before she's thrown across the room. Again. She hits the desk with a groan. "How fast is his metabolism again?" She hadn't studied his species, had only look at the ones who had more, the ones that were a dangers to Kara. The ones that might go after the kryptonian should they escape. She regrets it a little bit right now.

"The tranquilizers take five minutes to react with his system." Vasquez sounds as tired as she is, weak from blood loss. And they need to finish this soon, get all the aliens rounded up and find out what the hell happened.

Alex drops her head back against the wall as blood drips down her hairline and over her eyes. She spots Niz'al's slits flaring on his face. He's caught her scent. "Awesome."

She rubs the blood over the wall then floor, moving around quickly to confuse the alien, at least until the tranquilizer takes effect. Three minutes later she crouched behind a desk, Niz'al is making clicking noises, echoing off the walls as he searches for her. His vocal range is too shrill to include English but he is loud and angry. There's a creak and her hands tighten on the gun before Niz'al throws the desk across the room. "Great." The alarms are still blaring and she rolls away from him, but a tentacle catches her leg and begins to yank her towards him. Alex fires the gun at the tentacles but he only pulls her faster, screeching louder. She aims at his face and it does nothing so she begins to fire at the tentacle pulling her, hoping to sever it before she gets to Niz'al.

As it would have it right as the tentacle falls off J'onn, in all his green glory, tackles Niz'al and throws him across the room. Niz'al, woozy from blood loss now and the tranq growls back. Within thirty seconds Niz'al falls unconscious and Alex slumps back against the wall. J'onn shifts back into his Hank Henshaw form. "How did you know?"

"I'll let you in my head after we finish our jobs." And Alex is too tired from a seven minute fight, she needs to drag Kunnings to the infirmary and they need to subdue the escaped prisoners. "Demian will be here any second."

Within minutes said alien bursts into the room and spots the other alien on the ground. Demian moves to place the killing blow, a sword from a downed agent in her hands. She doesn't get the chance. Hank hits her with a tranq and her weaker system can't handle it like Niz'al's did. She roars in anger but stumbles with a glare to the Director, her fluttering eyes promise death to him before they flit over to Alex. She keeps eye contact with the human until she falls unconscious. Her luminescent form begins to dull as she enters unconsciousness.

Cleaning up the DEO, getting the prisoners back where they go and taking care of the wounded and dead takes five grueling hours. Alex is cleared from the med-bay, leaving a sleeping Vasquez and unconscious Kunnings in there she heads to Director Henshaw's office. They would deal with the memorial services tomorrow, when they would inform families of their relatives untimely deaths. A plane crash coming home, bodies unrecoverable for now. And that was the worst part of this job, not being able to give the families closure right away, not when the bodies of the dead were possibly contaminated. They'd be released soon enough, after they'd been examined and after the cover story had been in place for a few days. After they had been recognized for their brave service at the DEO.

"Agent Danvers." And his face is as stern as ever, but there are exhaustion lines on his face, break outs and dead agents were never good.

"Director Henshaw." And she shuts the door behind her, collapses into her seat. "I don't know how to explain this." And her hands rubs over her pant legs.

"You know who I am, how?" He looks worn, like keeping this secret is weighing his shoulders down with every day. 

Alex swallows. "I. You told me, but not. Not in this world. Or this timeline." She runs a hand through her hair. "It's so hard to explain. I woke up and Rao." She closes her eyes, shakes her head and shudders. This was her first time explaining being apart of two worlds to someone. Maybe he would understand. He was Hank Henshaw, he had his memories but he was also J'onn J'onzz. "I didn't think i'd be the one to remember, and I was fine with that. But now, i'm glad she's not that one who remembers, that you guys don't. It would tear you apart. I don't know. I can't."

He holds up his hands, blinking curiously at her. Like she's the alien in the room, and maybe to him she is. "You are not of this Earth Agent Danvers?"

"No, I mean I am, but I'm" She lets out a frustrated sigh. "The Earth, the timeline, its changed. I don't know how to explain it. I can't." She cradles her head in her hands, shoulders trembling. "Can you just read my mind? It'll be quicker, easier."

"You would trust me to do that?" And he's staring at her with something like shock, but also like hope. 

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" And she remembers his stories of Mars, of mind melding and how it dealt with complete and utter trust. How hard it was being the last of his species, the one who used to have many voices in his head along with his own, left alone and silent by himself. And she feels for him now more than ever.

And he watches her, like he's reading her now but she knows he's only regarding her, thinking. And then he leans forward, holds his hands up. "May I?" She nods and his thumbs come up to cover her temple as his fingers cradle her skull, hair caught between them. She closes her eyes and lets his mind overcome hers. Feels his familiar steady presence. She relaxes into his hands and lets him see everything, every memory, from the first world. Before Kara's death. And it hurts but there's bitter sweet memories she forgot about. Teaching Kara how to surf. The sun on their backs. Kara's showing at the art shows and her wide grin as she drag Alex through the gallery. Hank's late night Choco's cookies when they're on a late mission and everyone knows they'll be stuck there for a while. Lucy risking her life to save them from Cadmus. Vasquez's first mission with Alex and the grins when they get the job done right. Everything from the moment Kara hit the ground to the moment she died and then there's the blinding light and her head _aches_ but the world changes, every memories from before is played over again or replaced, changed in some way. And she's alone again, witnessing the holes in this life where Kara should be.

By the time they come back from her memories her muscles are stiff and tears are staining her face. J'onn looks at her with such understanding and profound loss. "You must have headaches."

"Some days." And her voice is thick with tears, sounds rougher than she's ever heard it.

"You've lost your world." There that deep understanding again, like she is up there with him. Like they can understand each other.

She shakes her head. Everyone she loved in the last world is as alive as they were before. She can still see them. And J'onn, who lost his entire world and culture is saying she's the same as him. "My world is right here."

"But it isn't the one you know, you left another for this one." There's a pained look in his eyes but also profound sadness. Like he misses the other world too. "You gave it up to save everyone."

"I did it to save Kara." And there would be no other reason to change the world, she'd move mountains for Kara, changing the world. Letting her forget. It was gut wrenching but it was worth it. "I don't know what she did, but she brought _her_ back, I couldn't be happier." And her voice cracks, tears threatening to spill again. "Kara's _alive_ and happy."

His hand comes to her shoulder, there's heartbreak in his eyes too. Loss as well. "But she took all the memories of everyone."

"Yes, but it was the price." And she shakes her head, there's a weight off her chest now that someone else knows, but there's a burning behind her eyes and her lungs _hurt._  "I give them all up and she saves Kara."

And he drops the topic, lets Alex catch her breath. He leans back in his chair, pulls out some Choco's to split with her. She chokes on a laugh but accepts the cookie. "This world seem similar to the past one." And his eyes are flickering through his own memories then Alex's, the differences, the similarities.  

"The only difference is how Kara was raised, and how it affected everyone." Alex rubs at her face, wiping her tears away, her arms feel like jelly. Like J'onn had pushed her through a twelve hour training session again. "General Lane, Colonel Harper and Cadmus are still problems we need to deal with."

"I saw." His lips purse and he sighs through his nose. "I saw images of Cadmus in your memories." He pauses staring at her like he knew everything, which he most likely did. "They were not." And he hesitates, brows furrowing and there's a fierce protectiveness in his eyes. _"Pleasant."_

She almost flinches back, but this was J'onn. He was the closest thing to family in this new world and he now understood everything. Even the bad. "Cadmus wasn't pleasant, but we can stop them in this world."

And his eyes sparkle like he's proud again. Like she can change the world. "The projects in your lab?"

"We're not big enough to contain all Fort Rozz escapees and every alien that comes to earth, but if we rehabilitate them." And she thinks of all those aliens that Cadmus had, ones that had slipped through the cracks of DEO, ones that she had watched be tortured and turned to weapons against their will. Searching for a better home and finding hell. "Monitor them and use technology to mask their alien heritage they can be integrated into society."

His face is something between hopeful, shocked and proud. Like she has exceeded his every expectation. "You think this is possible?"

Alex's eyes are haunted as they meet his. "No one deserves to be in a cage, those that we can rehabilitate should be. We implant trackers in them, fail-safes in case Lane or Harper go after them. We can build a _better_ world." A world where aliens and humans worked together. Where Cadmus was torn to pieces and no body had to suffer at their hands.

He smiles at her like any proud father would, and she wonders if its a weight off his shoulders. His secret alien life, sharing it with someone two understands. She knows there's a weight off her shoulders now. That she's no longer alone in this world that is so different from her own. "You are everything your father would have wanted you to be." 

Alex sniffs quietly, tears filling her eyes again as she drops her gaze at his words and her heart breaks. "She changed the entire world and he still _died."_

"I am sorry Alex, if I could have saved him." And she know he would have, but Jeremiah still died saving J'onn. Still died wishing J'onn to look after Alex. Still died fighting or what he believed in.

"No, its." She shrugs. "I'm glad he had you when he died, but." She shudders again, fighting to gain control over her emotions as her head swims. "Project Cadmus may have had him in the world before."

J'onn sits up, filtering through the memories until he finds the one of them changing Harper's memories. Of he and Alex tearing through Cadmus facilities while on the run. How it put her on Cadmus' radar. "Do you think they have him now?"

"We never found him, just traces from other prisoners and my time there. I don't think he made it in either world. I wish he did, god I wish he did but if he is then he spent so many years experimented on by them." And she shivers, her entire body shaking. She knew intimately how Cadmus worked. "They're not afraid of human trials despite their hate for aliens."

He sets a hand to her shoulder again, squeezing it to ground her. "Well figure this out Alex, I promise." And she falls into his chest, hugging him like she had in the old world. Everything would be okay now. J'onn knew and that was a weight shared between them.


	4. Love is unconditional

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eliza was sharp edges and harsh words, nothing like her husband, who was soft curves and even softer grins. She had never been good at expressing correctly, and when Kara and Alex stand before her, she knows somethings up.  
> Or  
> Alex and Kara have been together for months, both seeing a therapist for their long line of emotional baggage to figure their lives out and manage a healthy relationship and healthy life. They've reached the point where they need/want to tell Eliza.

Eliza had just gotten into National City, her rented car is parked down in the garage, where Kara's car, if she had one, would be. Alex's motorcycle was parked beside her so Eliza knew to expected both women when she came up to the apartment. Her luggage is rolling behind her and Kara's neighbors are nosily looking at her through the cracks of their door. She lets out a soft huff, wherever she went Kara always managed to make friends, even with reclusive neighbors who were too nosy for their own good. The building is as bright and full of happiness as it had been when she'd come down for thanksgiving. 

With a grin she stands outside the door, within a second its yanked open after there's the scrambled sound of someone stumbling, probably Alex with Kara zipping past her, full super-speed. Kara is grinning at her, nervous and happy all in one. Eliza grins, pulling her luggage through the door, the door snaps shut behind her with a flick of Kara's finger and she has enough time to take note of Alex's bare feet and then Alex's things strewn all over the apartment. Eliza rolls her eyes in good nature, her girls were always a bit of a mess, had always been. Alex looks stiff and nervous while Kara is all nerves and trembling energy.

Eliza lets her luggage drop, grinning at them. "How are my girls?" And she hugs Kara first, squeezing her tightly until her own bones crack and Kara lets out a laugh before Eliza is hugging Alex and squeezing almost as tightly, unwilling to bruise her daughter with the too tight hugs she bestowed Kara with. 

"We're good. Awesome even. Everything's totally fine." And Kara is all nerves and spouting words. Alex pulls back from Eliza, lips twitching and there's something dark in her eyes as she fiddles with the sleeves of her cream sweater, Eliza forces her focus on her daughter instead of Kara's nerves. The sleeves are too long and the shirt droops on her shoulders, Eliza almost shakes her head. Alex was obviously wearing Kara's sweater, much like she had her third year of high school when Kara hit her growth spurt and the blonde was embarrassed at the need for all new clothes and her towering height. Alex always did like stealing cloths that were too big for her, despite her grumbling acceptance that Kara was taller than her. And Kara was always happy to oblige Alex her clothes, at ease with her growth spurt then with Alex's easy but grudging acceptance. Always so in tune with each other.

Alex looks nervous, slightly nauseous and the fiddling with her sleeves is a dead give away to her nerves, even Kara is nervous and it forces Eliza to listen and watch. To find out why her girls are so nervous. "Good. Good, I've discovered a protein in a species from the outer rims that may help with regenerative drugs we use at the DEO." And she's rambling, much like she does when nervous, moving her hands too and fro like Kara had been moments ago.

Eliza quirks an eyebrow up, lips twitching at her daughter's exuberance before she moves her gaze to Kara. Kara who is staring at Alex in adoration and amusement. Something tugs in Eliza's gut but she listens to her daughter ramble about her findings instead of focusing on Kara and that soft look in her eyes. Eliza plows forward with questions bouncing around in her head and a fire in her blood. "How does it bind with the DNA? How does it speed up the healing process?"

Alex blinks and grins, her shoulders relax slightly and there's a familiar gleam in her eyes. "Its almost like stem cells mom, except its a protein in their blood. We took a blood sample, a small one with their permission, and there was so much information in just that sample. It allows them to adapt to any environment." She's as excited as she was when Jeremiah first brought Superman home to test the bounds of his powers and Alex got to help, all gap toothed and questions. "The planet they come from is purely carbon monoxide, but they landed here and their bodies adapted to take in carbon dioxide. They _changed_ their biology to fit the atmosphere. The protein allows their bodies to heal quicker, it's not like Kara's and the sun. Its a completely different protein inside their cells. If we can get a patent out we can start work on healing brain damage, spinal damage with the protein. Rao, the possibilities mom." And Alex is flush with excitement and the possibilities of healing the world. 

"And the government?" Eliza is flushed with the same excitement, to be able to work with this. The possibility of healing spinal damages, giving people the ability to walk again, god Alex could cure diseases and it was because of her research. There was still the pang of fear, the DEO took her husband and it still might take her daughter, but Alex, she was doing more than Eliza could ever have hoped for. She was saving humans and aliens alike working under them. Looking to stop the spread of inter-species diseases and fix damages thought beyond repair. "How do they feel about it?"

"General Lane hovers." And a frown mars Alex's face, Kara is still staring at her in awe and love and Eliza's eyes dart between the two of them, Kara's hand on Alex's elbow. Alex bumping back into her every few second as if to make sure she's still there. Something gnaws at the back of Eliza's mind again but she is too focused on the blatant excitement in her daughter's eyes. The fact that there are parts of her that Alex has, something that reminds her of herself, not just Jeremiah. And it calms that ache in her chest when she looks into Alex's eyes and sees Jeremiah. When Alex stands tall and defiant, but here, rambling like she's found the next best thing in the world reminds Eliza of when Alex was six and begged for a microscope. When she used to follow Eliza around on campus, lugging her own miniature messenger bag, glasses slipping down her nose as she refused Eliza's offer to carry some of the weight of her books. "He doesn't like the idea of anything alien entering the human body." And Alex rolls her eyes after she says this and Kara, sweet innocent Kara, lets out an undignified snort, elbowing Alex in the side. Like they used to when they were huddled together on the couch and Alex said something funny. There's a mischievous bright look in Kara's eyes and Alex flushes red, from her cheeks to her ears like she used to at the surfing competitions and Vicky would show up, bikini and skin dry and hug Alex despite the salt clinging to Alex's skin. 

Eliza tilts her head, but lets the moment pass without mention. Kara and Alex had always had their own way of speaking. Their own communications, touches and looks. Something Eliza would never be able to interpret or understand despite years of watching them grow. "What trials are you putting the proteins through? Does it change the genetic make up of the DNA of the new host?"

"No." And Alex looks happy to be under Eliza's questions, that stiff set to her shoulders falling, so unlike when Eliza had thrown questions and accusations at her when she was younger, when she was spiraling and Eliza could do nothing but worry and push. "It adapts, changes to fit the new DNA. Its unlike anything I've ever seen mom."

Eliza smiles, easy where it is usually hard and too sharp. "I always knew you'd do amazing things Alex." And Alex stiffens, there's this look in her eyes, like Eliza's thrown her for a loop before there's the familiar look of guilt. The look she got when she got into a fight in third grade. The one where she knows she's in the wrong but wouldn't change anything. Kara drops her chin and won't look at Eliza now, but her fingers reach for Alex's. They shake but squeeze Alex's like they're taking strength from each other. Eliza might not be able to understand the way they communicate to each other, but she raised them. She knows their every tick, watched them grow together. And right now their bodies are telling Eliza that they feel guilty, that they believe they've done something she won't agree with and that she will lay into them with harsh accusation. And Eliza stiffens, she tried her best. Tried to do everything right by them, but she was alone after Jeremiah left. Alone with an alien Jeremiah had talked her into taking in, who had no idea how to adapt to Earth and a daughter who looked so much like Jeremiah, who reminded her of him every single day.

She tried to do right but she was never meant to parent alone, Jeremiah was suppose to be there to smooth over her harsh edge, to be calm where she wasn't. She was suppose to raise Alex with him, watch her grow up, but Jeremiah was gone and Alex. Alex latched onto Kara like the girl had to Alex when she landed. They were inseparable and Eliza was alone, alone to raise two teenagers that acted nothing like she and her sister. They were too old, too close, too different and too damn _stubborn._ "Mom." Alex's voice cracks, Eliza steps closer, worried. Alex was always strong, stronger than she had any right to be, and right now she was breaking before her very eyes. "I-we have something to tell you."

"Alex?" Eliza flits her gaze over them, searching. Kara is trembling, shoulders hunched but pressed close to Alex and Alex is meeting her gaze head on like she always had, tears in her eyes and she looks like she's off to war. Looks like Eliza is her last obstacle, but she can't face up too it despite how close to the end she is.

"I-I'm. I like women mom." Her shoulders drop, her lips tremble and her eyes are full of so many tears. "I like them the way Aunt Helen likes men. And I." Her words are cracking and she looks like everything she's know is falling around her. 

Eliza steps close, cradles Alex's face between her hands. Alex stills, tears threaten to fall down her face as she drops her gaze to the floor, refusing to meet Eliza's gaze now. "Oh Alex. My beautiful Alexandra." Alex stiffens at this before she trembles and looks up to meet her gaze at the lack of hate in Eliza's voice. "I love you, no matter what. My sweet girl, did you think this would bother me? Come here."

And she reaches to pull Alex into a hug but Alex steps back, bumps into Kara who has been silent. Who is looking at Alex like Alex is everything, like she'll tear the world down to take away the tears from Alex's eyes. Eliza furrows her brow. Usually its the other way around, Alex quiet and sentient, Kara rambling and words, seeking comfort and conformation. "No. No mom. That's. That's not _everything."_

Eliza wants to hold her, hold her and promise everything will be alright, that the world has no say in how and who she loves. "Alex, I will always love you." Eliza's words are strong but her heart is breaking at the look on her daughter's face. "No matter what, if I made you doubt that I am so sorry."

"No, don't. Don't promise. I can't." And she chokes on her words, Eliza itches to cradle Alex to her like when she was four and broke her ankle. But Alex doesn't seek her comfort, she leans back into Kara like she's taking strength from her and Kara. God, Kara looks as heartbroken as Alex does. Like Eliza will take everything from them with just a word. Something niggles in the back of Eliza's brain, she's a scientist, always observing and she blinks, letting her eyes roll around the room quickly as Alex gathers her words, as Kara lends her strength, taking stock of what she had early. And it clicks suddenly, Alex's boots are tucked under Kara's bed. Alex's glasses are on the bedside table. Alex's jackets are hung on Kara's long line of clothes by the window. It clicks with the way Alex is leaning back into Kara and Kara stands, shoulders back, fingers rubbing at Alex's shoulders, even before the words leave Alex's lips Eliza _knows._ "I. Kara and I, we're. We're together." And the tears starts flowing then. "Like. Like how you and dad were mom. I'm gay and Kara and I are together." And Alex's shoulders shake, she curves in on herself with all the self-hatred and guilt she had the night Jeremiah had died.

"Oh _Alex."_ Alex trembles even more, but she's not apologetic, just scared. Eliza steps closer, and Kara, normally sweet Kara, is watching Eliza like a hawk, like she'll burn Eliza with her heat vision if she makes one wrong move. Something settles in her chest then. "Did you think I would be mad?" Eliza aches inside, chest heavy with pain and guilt. How could she ever think that, how much had she messed her daughter up to doubt the unconditional love of a mother? "My sweet girl."

Alex looks up in shock and Kara stills, chest not moving, eyes losing that darkness they held. "I. You. You always. You told me she was meant to be my-my sister and I couldn't. Mom, I _can't."_ Alex looks like her very world is cracking around her and the only thing keeping her ground is Kara's touch. Like Kara is the life line in the middle of a storm.

Eliza reaches for Alex's face again, waits for her touch to be rejected but Alex leans into her hands, sobbing. Kara moves forward, fingers pressed into Alex's back, there are tears in her eyes too, but she's being strong. Strong for Alex. "Oh my beautiful girls, I am so so sorry if I ever made you think I would hate you for this."

"I don't." Alex lets out another body shaking sob, Kara is still pressing reassuring fingers to her back, but Alex still trembles. "I don't _understand."_  

Eliza rubs her thumbs over the tears slipping down Alex's face, soothing her. "You were never sisters, no matter how much I tried I knew you wouldn't be. You were too old, too close. Too different. You two were nothing like how sisters were meant to act, nothing like me and my sister. I thought you guys would grow into the roles, but you never did." Somewhere, deep inside Eliza always knew, always suspected. God, Jeremiah would have confirmed her suspicions, he would have helped Alex through this and Alex wouldn't be sobbing like this. Her girls wouldn't be breaking before her very eyes if she had him. If she would have been a better mother. "You two never fit any roles or ideas I had for you and I am so _proud,_ of both of you. Never doubt that."

Alex collapses into her, sobbing like Eliza had never seen before, deep body trembling cries that make Eliza ache, she curved her arms around her daughter, lets her cry into her shoulder and clutch at her shirt. Eliza looks to Kara, who is holding her hand out like she's barely stopping herself from reaching Alex again and Eliza aches inside deep and all consuming. How much did she need to mess up to make the two of them think she could hate them? "Kara." And Alex stiffens in her arms, Kara looks up startled, fingers curving into her palm, arm trembling. Eliza breaks a little inside at the look Kara is giving here. "Come here." And Kara moves forward, are quick as she can, in the blink of an eyes she collapses into Eliza's side and is holding Alex and Eliza tightly. They stand like that for a while, Alex trembling and Kara still as a statue, pushing all of her weight into the two humans. "Oh my sweet girls, I love you so much, nothing will ever change that." Both girls let out soft sobs, and Eliza drops her head forward to press into their shoulders, letting her own tears fall. All would be well, her girls had each other and she, she would learn to love better. Without the sharp words and accusations. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm very awkward, like really awkward and can never figure out how to really reply to people, but I want to thank everyone who has commented on this story. They move me and so I want to thank all of you, again.


	5. Unlimited

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone pulls a Barry Allen and goes back in time to prevent Astra's death and change the timeline to fit their needs.

There is a blinding light, air swirling all around before a figure appears, still glowing and blue around the edges. Barely stumbling into a run the figure tackles Alex as she pulls the sword from its sheath. Both J'onn and Astra look up in surprise as the dark clad figure throws the sword far away, taking a knee to the gut and an elbow to the neck as Alex fights under the figure before rolling free and standing, wary, gun now clutched in her hand. "Who are you?" Her voice is harsh, muscles tensed. J'onn still rests on his knees, wary to rise as Astra stands tense beside him.

The figure tilts their head, a thin helmet molded to their face glints light off its visor before the figure speaks. "A friend." The voice is disembodied, garbled as it filters out of the helmet. "I've stopped you from killing Kara Zor-El's remaining blood of Krypton." 

Alex grits her teeth, gaze shifting from a downed J'onn to Astra, standing to the side curiously watching them, poised to strike before Alex eyes go back to the unknown figure, the greater threat at this moment. "Take off your helmet."

"I can't do that." Slowly the figure turns around to face the other woman, callous about the gun aimed at their chest. "Astra In-Ze. Married to Non-Ur, matched upon entry to the Military Guild Academy."

The kryptonian narrows her eyes before gritting her teeth. "Lead lined helmet."

"I've known kryptonians." The voice lit, still garbled, amused yet sad.

Astra tilt her head up stepping closer, chin haughtily raised as she keeps both J'onn and Alex in her line of sight. "How do you know me?"

The glowing blue edges around the figure begin to fade and there's huff of filtered air through the helmet. "I cannot say, but I can tell you this, if you do not work together now." The figure looks to both Alex and Astra and their voice grows hard with a strange finality. "Kara Zor-El Danvers will die. It is inevitable."

Astra speeds over and grabs the figure by their throat, holding them high. "You speak lies!" Her eyes are wild, hair curling in the wind, there isn't an ounce of the strategic general in her, just a woman protecting family.

The metal of the suit does not crumple under her kryptonian strength, alien in origin apparently. "Your husband already used the Black Mercy on her. He will not stop until she cannot protect Earth. She will fight to her last breath and not even the yellow sun can save her." There's a catch in the figure's voice, a pause and crack to the voice. "Astra In-Ze your death was to be tonight at the hands of Alex Danvers. This would lead to a series of battles, all of which your husband leads upon your death. Kara Zor-El Danvers would fly Fort Rozz into space after attempting to stop Myriad."

Alex looks up sharply, there's a slight tremble to her frame. "She won't get back into earth's atmosphere?" Alex's gun is still on the figure despite the fear forcing her heart to race. Astra's hand still tight around it's throat, tightening ever so slightly.

"Kara dies where i'm from." There's that catch again, almost impervious but so very broken yet the figure doesn't confirm their suspicions about Fort Rozz.  "It is in motion, I have prevented one aspect of her eventual death."

J'onn looks up, searching the figure before something clicks as he stands. "You're a time traveler." 

The figure tilts their head, light glinting of the dark glass of the visor. "And you are not the last martian J'onn J'onzz."

His face shifts to one of shock, green skin growing pale and his legs almost give out from under him. "Who?"

"I cannot say, but I will tell you this when the time comes you must rely on those around you. Daxamite, Kryptonian. Once enemies but similar in features. They have been enemies but they need not be. The same goes for you J'onn and the martian you will find. Do not let years of hate cloud your judgment." The figure turns their head to Alex, eerily so as they can't make out the figure's eyes. "There is a danger coming, one I cannot prevent. Kara will need your strength and understanding, but do not forgive too easily and do not hide your true feelings." There's a pause in the speech as the time-traveler stares at Alex. "I've prevent part of that tonight, but she will need you Alexandra Danvers. She will need the support of those that care for her. Time is not to be wasted." The figure tilts their head down, shifting to stare at the woman still gripping their throat. "Astra, your sister received a new name with her marriage, you kept yours. Her house became stronger together. What is yours?"

Astra glowers at the traveler, eyes as bright as coals. "To be Ze is Ambition. Aspiration. Resolve." Her fingers tighten slightly. "But you already knew this."

Alex looks up sharply, curious even in the face of danger. "Then what does El mean?"

Astra purses her lips, glare moving from Alex to the being whose throat she has clutched in her hand. "Hope. Impulse. Desire."

"Kara said El mayarah is what it stands for." Alex's eye brow furrow, her hand is still on her gun and J'onn is standing at her back. "Like they said, stronger together."

Astra scoffs, hand tightening on the figures throat, the suit must be made of Thanagarian steel for it still does not bend. "It does as well human."

Alex's eyes are narrowed in curiosity again and the figure remains silent. "And what is your saying?" 

Astra sneers at the figure, itching to destroy this person who brought about memories that had no right coming forward. She glares at Alex over the time-traveler's head. "I do not need to tell you this."

"Against all odds." The figure speaks up quietly. Astra shoots them a sharp look, eyes growing hotter, glowing blue. "You must follow both, blood may tie some of you. Kryptonian, human, martian. Blood is that. It is only blood. The world needs all of you, it needs you to be stronger together and it needs you to fight, against all odds."

Astra stares for what feels like eternity before tilting her chin curiously, a spark in her eyes. "And you traveler, what is yours?"

"Unlimited. Measured. Infinite." And there's an otherworldly quality to the voice, even garbled by the helmet as it is, it makes the air heavy. "Time brings all things to pass." 

Alex is taking everything in with wide eyes while J'onn attempts to run a mental read the traveler. Astra drops the throat of the traveler, letting them gain their footing, but she still glowers at them. "And your house name?"

A broken garbled laugh escapes the helmet and the figure shakes their head. "I've no house name. I've no _home."_ And there's a perceivable crack there.

The two who've lost their planet and their people ache at the familiar loss in their voice but Astra plows on, tactless and tense. "Then what are you?"

"I am Boundless." And a hand coating in a thick gauntlet like glove moves out with flourish, like this was a game.

Astra grumbles low in her chest, breathing in deeply. "You smell human but not human."

"There is a species that deals in time, you've met one. Yet I am the only of my species." There's too much amusement in the traveler's voice, a riddle and a game.

Astra narrows her eyes, tilting her head with a sneer. Alex speaks up quietly from behind the traveler. "A hybrid then."

There's the sound of a cape in the wind. Astra and the figure both turn to see Supergirl zooming over to them, slamming into the roof. The building shudders and Alex keeps her hand around her gun and the barrel pointed at the figure's chest despite this. "What is this?" Kara stumbles near the kryptonite sword and Alex move quickly and easily slides it back into the lead line sheath on her back with a swift hand. The figure won't stop staring at Kara, black gloved hands tremble, knees wobble. "Who is this? Aunt Astra? Alex?"

The figure shudders, an odd gasping sound coming from its helmet. _"Kara."_ The heavy air breaks as does the figure's voice.

"How do yo- Who are you?" Narrowed eyes begin to glow, fist clench as the girl of steel stare down the figure of metal and black.

"I'm. I'm from the future. I prevent a needless death tonight." There's another catch in the figure's garbled voice and their hands keep trembling. "I." There is the shuddering breathing again, like the figure is falling apart, barely choking down chest wreaking sobs. "I will be watching." Then the figure is gone in a flash of blinding light, disappearing as quickly as they arrived.

Astra takes that moment to take off, building shuddering under the force of it as she rockets through the sky. J'onn shifts his feet, eyeing a shocked Kara and a tense Alex. "Alex?" Kara's voice catches in confusion.

"I almost." Alex swallows thickly and there's the flash of blue lights flying towards them in the distance, Kara looks at them sharply, recognizing the Fort Rozz prisoners, her people, in the distance. "We need to _go."_ Kara grabs Alex and J'onn shifts. They take off, leaving behind the building where Astra had almost met her untimely end and Alex had almost killed Kara's aunt.

* * *

* * *

Kara paces in the DEO lab, Alex having stripped of her tactical gear what seems like hours ago. "Alex? What _was_ that?" There's a crinkle between Kara's eyebrows, and her hands are fisted in her cape.

"I almost. I almost killed Astra." Tears fill Alex's eyes and her voice is choked. "I didn't think about the consequences. She was about to kill J'onn and I reacted without thinking. I almost stabbed her through the back and the person, the time traveler, stopped me." Her heart is racing and her hands tremble as she refuses to look up and meet Kara's eyes. Refuses to see the devastation and the accusations there. "Said I killed her in their world. Their time."

Kara blinks, backing away from Alex. Shaking her head. "You wouldn't. You wouldn't kill her."

"I'm a soldier Kara." And Alex's eyes are glassy, her chest shudders as she watches the most important person in her life step away from her like the monster she is. "I killed Dr. Morrow. I killed the hellgrammite. I _almost_ killed Astra." Alex's hands come around to grips across her stomach, throat bobbing with the effort to stop the sobs that want to leave her chest.

Kara shakes her head, hands shaking. "But you didn't."

Alex lets out a chocked laugh, slightly crazed and full of shame and guilt. "Because they _stopped_ me."

Kara still hasn't stepped forward, is still yards away from Alex, confused and reeling with this new information. "Who are they?"

Alex tenses, fingers tightening to bruising pressures across her hips. "I don't know, but they said things are coming, bad things." Alex looks up to stare at Kara now, taking in the sight of her like Kara had been the one she'd almost run through with the sword. "They said you die in the future, that Astra's death allowed Non to lead and that you died stopping Non's plans."

Kara's face softens, and she takes a few steps closer to Alex. "Alex, you didn't."

"I almost killed you." Tears start falling from her eyes, and she chokes on the anguish as she steps away from Kara's comfort, backs away like she doesn't deserve it. "I almost lead to your death Kara. I can't." She presses her fingers to her mouth, hoping to stop the choked sob that escapes as she continues to back away until she hits the wall. "I'm suppose to _protect_ you."

"I'm _here."_ Kara runs forward, blurring at the edges as she crushes Alex's to her, there's the pop of bones and the creak of alien pressure on a human's body, but neither of them care in that moment. "I'm here and I'm alive. Whatever is coming i'm here and so are you. We'll face it, together." Alex sobs into Kara's shoulder and Kara clings to her tighter, refusing to let her go for a second.

* * *

* * *

The figure is standing in the rain, hidden in the shadows when someone comes to stand next to them, seemingly appearing out of thin air. "What did you _do?"_

A long sigh escapes the respirators in the helmet and the figure stares at the sky of their past. So very different than the future, less fire, less destruction. "Fixed a mistake."

The man, long hair and retro-glasses on his head huffs in disappointment. "You know it can't work like that, time is not to be _played_ with."

The figure glares at the man from another Earth. The man who used to work beside the fastest man alive. "There's a reason I got these powers, same as you."

He stares at the helmet in disappointment, easily meeting eyes he cannot see. "You're playing with time."

The figure scoffs, shaking their head. "Like you wouldn't? You saw what became of this world when Supergirl died." And the garbled words crack and echo, broken with grief. "I prevented the catalyst to it all."

They both look to where the Fort Rozz kyrptonian land on the roof across the other buildings, investigating the spot that had almost been the place of Astra In-Ze's death. "It may not change anything." And he sounds defeated, judging and slightly remorseful. A contradiction of emotions, so very human in this moment.

"You could always vibe to the future." The traveler grumbles out, crossing their arms, the metal of their suit clicks and hisses. "I could always go."

The man scoffs but he fiddles with his jacket, moving the zipper up and then down over and over. "You've exhausted your powers going _back_ this far."

The traveler doesn't move their head but the man can feel eyes on him as they speak. "And you?"

There's a disappointed sigh that turns into a slightly rueful huff. "I must be getting to my own Earth and time, with its own messed up time line." And the man stares at the figure, full of understanding yet disappointment. "I hope you don't make the same mistakes he did. Actions have consequences."

The traveler scoffs, garbled and devastated, the moonlight glinting off their helmet. "I think I know that most of all. I hope your Earth is still in one piece."

The man laughs slightly, hinged with worry, shaking his head. "I hope you didn't mess this one up."

There's a choked snort, inhibited by the helmet. "I guess we'll find out, safe travels."

He drops his tinted glasses over his eyes, winking at her, losing the stern disappointment he had been staring at them with. "You too Echo."

The figure huffs out what sounds like a laugh. "You're worse than Cat Grant."

"Naw, I didn't call Barry 'The _Blur'."_ And the man grins finally, eyes bright under glasses that begin to glow blue. "See you around Echo."

"Goodbye." The figure pauses, tilting their head, their voice takes on a tinge of amusement. _"Vibe."_ The man before them lets out a chuckle before he begins to step through his own portal and Echo stares after him. "Good luck."

Vibe scoffs, stepping almost all the way through. "Never needed it, but you too Echo."

* * *

Once Vibe is gone Echo stands there, staring at a National City they could only remember in dreams. _"Can you taste the changes?"_ The voice is broken and thick with exhaustion, coming from inside Echo's own head, heard only by them.

Under the helmet Echo's lips twitch. "Hello Ep."

Ep lets out a low grumble, flooding Echo's head with quiet playful noise. _"What did you do?"_

The figure pulls in a deep breath, but it is halted by the rasp of the respirator in the helmet. Fresh air replaced with the taste of metal. "Changed the past."

Ep is quiet for a second before their voice rumbles in Echo's head. _"Was it worth it?"_

Echo sits down slowly, joints clicking and suit clanking as they stare at the night sky through the glass of their helmet. "I think so, we just have to take down Cadmus."

Ep hums low in thought. " _I remember."_

Echo rests their head on their knee as their arms wrap around their shins, staring into the night sky of a National City that wasn't devastated. "I thought you might."

_"And Jeremiah Danvers?"_ Ep leaves no stone left unturned, louder than ever in Echo's head. 

"Is not to be trusted." Echo growls out, full of so much rage, but also devastation. "We will imprison him with the hope of rehabilitation."

Ep lets out a low hum, soothing yet continuing to push questions. _"And if there is no hope?"_

"Then we will kill him." And there's anguish coating the raspy voice of the time traveler. "Same as we had to do in our time."

Ep lets out a morose chuckle. _"The past,_ she, _will not agree."_

"The past can suck it." Echo throws a small rock off the edge of the building they reside on. "We're here to fix everything."

_"And if this changes nothing?"_ Echo can feel Ep's restlessness, they had been silent for a long time, at least until now. Until they traveled back.

Echo lets out a huff, picking up another pebble, turning it in their hand before throwing it over the edge with a low grunt. "Then we try again."

Ep hums and haws for a minute. _"The Justice League?"_

"I liked it better when you were quiet." Echo grumbles, crushing more of the concrete of the roof in their hands, it coats the dark gauntlets.

" _The past, it gives me strength."_ And Ep sounds soft, like they're reminiscing.

Echo digs at the roof still, fingers unable to stay still. "Will it separate us?" There is worry and fear there, that they will once again be alone.

_"No, we are to remain together. "_ And Ep doesn't sound like it bothers them at all. _"There is no going back. I have no body anymore and yours cannot sustain itself without me."_

"And when we fix the time line?" Echo lets their eyes close, the suits respirator hums but there is only darkness around them. Comforting. "When ours doesn't happen?"

Ep is quiet before letting the words softly flow through Echo's head. " _I do not know."_

"Scared to die?" There's an amused scoff that's inhibited by the helmet and the way it garbles the words as they leave Echo's lips. 

_"I am an Epochian."_ Ep sounds insulted. _"I never suspected I would die."_

Echo laughs almost remorsefully, tilting their head back so that they can see just the stars, the light of the city at the edges of their vision. "Terrifying isn't it?"

" _You have no fear?"_ Ep sounds confounded with this declaration, and it is the most emotion Echo has felt from the alien they had inadvertently been merged with.

"If it changes everything, keeps her alive i'm willing to die." And Echo is nothing if not determined

" _You may remember it after."_ Ep is thoughtful, humming within Echo's head in a way they never had before. _"Our minds may meld to this timelines"_

Echo scoffs and they both ignore the stab of pain, phantom as it is, that sparks in Echo's chest. "No, I think i'd rather our minds stay separate."

_"Free of knowledge of the future?"_ Ep sounds insulted by this, that any being would give up the ability to have more knowledge, especially of a possibly future.

"Free of nightmares of the past." And Echo shudders, at the death of Kara and everything that came after it. "If we do this right there will be no need to remember the future that comes."

Ep hums, accepting the reasoning, as one of the last of their species Ep could understand the need to forget the past. _"Will you contact the Justice League?"_

"It's only the Bat and the Boy-Scout right now." Echo scoffs, throwing another pebble off the building, there's the screech of a stray animal below. "No league to speak of."

Ep huffs and Echo's lips twitch at the way emotions not their own filter and flow around their own. _"The woman?"_

"Hiding if I remember right, she'll come out of hiding soon Ep. She has too." And there is too much wistful hope, desperation, in that. That a woman who saw one war followed by another and another would join in one again. 

_"Will we tell them?"_

"Red and blue boy scout won't listen." Echo's fists clench, destroying the pieces of roof in their hands, much like the roof had under Astra and Kara's bodies. 

" _The Bat may."_

"Maybe, but I don't want to risk it." Not with a man who only saw heroes as possibly future enemies, with a man who knew only the bad side of the world and expected it. A man who lost too much at the hands of someone he thought could be rehabilitated. "We do this my way, take down Cadmus, Fort Rozz and anti-alien protesters."

_"Luthors?"_ There's a cautious air that presses Echo's head with Ep's words.

"The son was right, the aliens are coming." Ep grumbles low in the figure's mind at that and Echo huffs. "He'll try to break out, we'll make sure he _won't."_

There's something like trepidation humming around Echo's head before Ep finally lets the name hanging between them out. _"Lillian?"_

Every muscle in Echo's body tenses and there's a rage that threatens to flood their head. "She dies, without a doubt."

_"Your anger speaks here, hate."_ Ep lets their reproach warp around Echo's head, trying to speak sense where Echo would find none. 

"She killed the person I loved most!" The rage floods both their minds and Echo's voice is garbled but full of so much anger and anguish. "She dies."

_"She lost her son in our time."_ Ep sounds soothing, understanding. Every bit of thousand year old being whose seen more than most. Who has seen worlds rise and fall, civilization crumble and people die. One who has seen the atrocities of the universe as well as the good. _"Acted in hate as you are."_

Echo scoffs, and on this rooftop, clad in a black helmet and suit seemingly talking to them-self, they gain the attention of someone with ear too keen. "So I let her roam around?"

Ep lets out a sound of devised disappointment tinged with a soft amusement. _"Never said that Echo."_

Echo lets out a loud scoff that catches. "I am going to kill Vibe."

_"His name for you is true. You try to fix echos of the past."_

Echo thumps their hand down against the roof, grumbling. "When will you go back to being quiet?"

" _You weakened your walls when you traveled back this far, the past and the travel gave me energy. Something I haven't had since the accident."_

Echo snorts, sounding like a dying car as their respirator hisses. "So never?"

Ep hums thoughtfully before surrounding Echo's head with caution and amusement. _"I think it will take time."_

The figure laughs for what seems like the first time in the long time they've been together. "You've made a joke Ep."

If Ep had a corporal body Echo could see the eye-roll that they felt in their head, Ep's voice derisive. _"I've always hated your name for me Echo."_

"We're in my head, I can call you whatever I want." Their amusement dies and the air grows heavy and melancholy around them. "We need to plan."

_"We need sleep. If I remember this timeline right there should be a safe-house nearby."_

* * *

* * *

Echo stares across the building, feet kicking over the edge of one of the high rise buildings. _"You are watching them?"_ Ep sounds cautious and slightly worried.

Echo lets out a soft sound, letting their eyes filter until they spots Kara quickly typing on her computer, Cat Grant is screeching in a meeting across the way, yelling at the editing department. Kara's phone buzzes every few second, a text from Alex that she answers easily each time. "They look happy, more than last time."

" _Yes."_ And they both pause as Siobhan walks by Kara's desk, making an offhand remark about hands under the desk. Kara flusters, cheeks heating up as she stammers back a reply before hunching down, she misses the amused twitch to Siobhan's lips, lacking the malice they had in a previous time. " _Will the Banshee happen?"_

"She did not lose her aunt." Their feet continue to kick into the air, uncaring of gravity and the possibility that they will fall. "She will handle it better, there is little but friendly rivalry between them now."

_"And Leslie?"_

Echo watches the clouds gently float in front of the sun, hiding the bright light if only for a few moments. "She doesn't deserve to be stuck in the DEO, to be caught unaware by Camus when they come."

Ep hums lowly, thoughtfully as they rummage through Echo's own thought processes. " _Will you break her out?"_

"I don't know." Echo's shoulders slump and they huff harshly.

" _You are conflicted."_

"No one deserves to be locked away." Echo grumbles out, watching birds catch the wind and fly higher and higher. Free. "Even the lightning bug."

" _Even the aliens?"_

Echo tilts their head back, letting the sun wash over the helmet like they could feel the sun on their face, their respirator hisses with each breath before they let out a long sigh. "Some of them don't, others need to be launched back with the prison."

_"Two tons of metal."_

Echo stiffens, staring at the sky like it had infinite answers. "I can fix it."

_"You can de-age it, there is a difference."_

"I know Ep." Fingers tighten on the concrete of the edge, crumbling it under hand. "I stopped the General's death."

" _Now you must stop the Master Jailer."_ Echo stiffens, remembering too well the Master Jailer. _"With Astra alive her number will be next."_

"Then the blue virus." Echo's voice drips in disdain, hands tightening to crumble the buildings edge like they were the one with kryptonian strength. "Then the alien hater."

Ep lets out a sound that drifts around Echo's head, conflicted yet stern. _"You must allow the red-k to happen."_

Echo stands quickly, spinning around and throwing a piece of the roof across the area. Lashing out like Ep was corporal and they could touch them. "The hell I do!"

" _We cannot change all the timeline."_ Ep is calming thoughts and voice, used to such outbursts from Echo. _"They must learn themselves."_

Echo stands tense, hands trembling. "The martian will be forced to reveal himself."

_"Not quite. You are here. Astra is alive. I believe Red-k will be different this time around, there is not so much heartbreak."_

Echo drops back down, running metal encased hands over their helmet, a habit from a time of the past when no helmet was needed. "She will suffer."

_"To live is to suffer."_ Ep huffs out gently, chiding. " _You must allow time to run it's course."_

Echo grit's their teeth, forcing their hands to fist against their thighs instead of destroying more of this building with strength they used to never have. "So what? I wait at the sidelines? I didn't come back to do that!"

_"No, we wait in the shadows."_ Soothing as ever Ep is the calm to Echo's anger _. "We help, but we do not change what doesn't need to be."_

Echo scoffs, wheezing out of their helmet like the world should hear them. "We let them _suffer."_

_"To know happiness you must know sadness."_ There's a sort of defeat to Ep's voice, one born from years of understanding. _"To live, you must understand suffering. I have been alive many eons, I have seen it all. You are trying to stop pain, but pain is a part of life. You know this."_

Echo snorts behind the dark helmet, letting their anger go, it had come much quicker as time had passed. "We should have you write a self-help book."

_"They would not understand my language."_

"No." Echo grumbles out before flopping back against the roof, back sprawled out on what should feel like hot concrete but the heat barely makes it through suit receptors. "So whats the plan then Time-Master?"

_"It has been many years since I have been called that."_ And the voice Echo dubbed Ep hums low in their head, thoughtful. _"We must lead them to the Master Jailer. With Astra alive we must distract Non."_

Echo grins like the cat that caught the canary, yet Ep is the only one to see the determination and glee to Echo. "Oh, I'll have no problem with that."

* * *

* * *

"Do we warn them or deal with them ourselves?" Echo watches the detective walk into the police station like he wasn't the one murdering aliens on the side. Like he wasn't enacting his own justice.

Ep lets out a small sound that grates the back of Echo's neck, they recognize that sound. " _We can give them the means they need to fight, but we must not fight their battles for them."_

Echo rumbles low in their throat before biting out their next words through clenched teeth. "So we sideline?"

_"We back up."_ Ep's voice has a low humming quality that is meant to calm Echo, but there is too much at stake and Echo's nerves continue to grate. " _Time is a very precarious thing Echo, we must be careful."_

* * *

 "I told you we should have handled it!"

_"Calm Echo."_

_"_ They've got Kara and Astra!" Echo paces the top of the building, hands thrown wide. "Why would I be calm about that?!" _  
_

_"Alex is on her way there, she will arrive in time."_

_"_ You see the future now?" Echo growls out, stopping to stare into the distance. "Because I remember what happened last time."

_"Everyone survived last time, all is well."_ Ep is too calm here, the rational to Echo's raging emotions. " _You must allow this time line to pass as it will. You know what one wrong move can do."_

Echo lets their shoulders drop, tilting their head back as they grumble. "You and Vibe mentioned it enough."

_"Then remain calm."_

"Easier said then done." Echo watches carefully, allowing their visor to filter until they can see through the walls. They watch as Astra's throat is offered to the guillotine before Alex intercepts. Dropping through the floor, her men firing away only to have the bullets bounce off the Master Jailer. Astra grits her teeth through a bullet wound before the agents are down and Alex is on the guillotine. Echo is tense, watching the fight like they could stop it with a flick of their wrist. Alex grins, bloodied and victorious as she shoots through the ceiling.

The Master Jailer makes a snide remark and Astra leans against the wall, wheezing as blood loss gets to her. Sunlight peaks through the cracks before Kara breaks through her bars, knocking the Master Jailer unconscious, heaving in fearful breaths as she pulls Alex up and away from the guillotine. Searching over her with worried eyes, hands running up and down Alex like she could feel any wound she hasn't seen. Astra heals from her wound, the sun a a balm to her pains. The three of them stand there for a scant few seconds before Astra bows slightly at Alex, murmurs something to Kara before she is gone, a speck in the sky. Alex leans into Kara's side with a surprised laugh and Kara rests her forehead against Alex's temple, scolding yet relieved.

* * *

* * *

" _All is well."_ Ep murmurs quietly as they crouch atop an apartment building downtown now.

"Yeah, this time." Echo growls out. "I could have killed him, stopped it before it happened."

Ep lets an annoyed sound filter through their head, pressing against Echo's anger. " _But then Alex and Kara would not have saved Astra. Alex would not have shown the faith she has in Kara. Things are meant to happen."_

Echo scoffs, muscles tense as they watch Kara and Alex laugh through a window, pizza in their hands and love in their hearts. "I'm not made to stand at the sidelines."

_"No, but you want the timeline to change, you want Kara to live."_ Ep's soothing balm does little for Echo in this moment. _"To do that you must listen Echo, let them act upon their own actions."_

Echo drops down from their crouch, settling their head on their knees. "Whatever the Time-lord wants then."

" _We will be gone soon, they must know the means to protect themselves. Must know to trust themselves, they cannot do that if you save them at every turn."_ Ep is more clinical than soothing in this moment, trying to convey knowledge instead of emotions.

"I understand." Echo huffs out. "Doesn't mean I like it."

" _You never were good at sitting on the sidelines, I can see that now."_

Echo grins finally, the first time that night, still hidden under their helmet. "Careful Ep, you sounded almost amused there."

_"It is nice to know you as you were and as you are."_

* * *

* * *

"Do we sit out this time?" Echo is as snide as they could be in the past, full of latent anger and loss.

" _No, Indigo will attempt to release the Fort Rozz escapees. She will want on Non's good side with Astra still alive."_

Echo drops their chin on their hand, the visor glinting under the street lights. "The lightning bug?"

Ep hums thoughtfully. _"Decisions to be made later."_

"I don't remember the date she attacked." Echo grunts out, jaw clenched at their failures. "I can't remember much from before."

" _We'll get a warning, Supergirl will stop her just as she did in your time."_

Echo huffs sounding more like a machine than person. "Will she be stopped or will she be in pieces?"

" _There are differences to this timeline, but similarities."_

Echo stiffens, glaring at the moon. "You want her to take the rocket still?"

" _When a life is threatened."_ And Ep sounds too sure, it should be calming yet it makes Echo stiffen. _"Especially of one you love, feelings are made known."_

Echo drops their forehead against their forearms, the metal clicking together with the force of it. "Sometimes I hate you."

" _You experienced what happened in your time due to strained love and lies, let them rely on one another."_ Ep is pushing for calm, pressing it down against Echo's emotions like they'll merge together, replace the bad. _"That was her downfall in our time."_

Echo lets out a shuddering breath as the city continues to move along below them, unaware of those who do not belong in this time. "I trust you Ep, I just don't have to like your plans."

" _All will be well."_

Echo lets out a disbelieving scoff. "And how do you know that?"

" _I am an Epochian, time repeats itself if given enough of a cycle and I have seen many cycles."_  

 And so Echo watches the sun rise. Watches as Indigo causes problems, forces cars to crash and mayhem to happen. Ep keeps Echo's feet planted, refusing to mess up time too much. So they watch with clenched fists as Kara fights Indigo. As she flies a rocket meant for National City away. Echo lets their vision follow the hero as she fights against a nuke meant to destroy their home. Hears Alex scream out, desperate and full of fear. There's a familiar ache in their chest they try to ignore as they watch this all unfold. Unknown to them Astra watches them watching her niece. And when all is done, when Kara and Winn save the day and Alex pulls Kara into a tight hold Echo feels empty, lost. Un-needed as they watch the past unfold, watches Kara and Alex grow closer, easier than in a future life Echo is bent on changing. 

* * *

* * *

"I don't think I can watch this again." Echo's hands are pressed to their helmet like they can stop it by hiding their eyes, they had watched Kara save the firefighters this morning. Had stood aside as the powder of red kryptonite entered her system despite every cell in their body telling them to stop it. Now they watch as she paces her apartment. "I don't want to."

Ep hums lowly, calming through Echo's head. _"It will be different this time."_

"How can you say that?" Echo scoffs, helmet forcing the words out in a snide garble.

_"Astra's death is not between them."_ Ep soothes. _"There is not so much hurt between them."_

Echo's shoulders fall and they stare in the distance as Kara demolishes her clothing rack."There's still _enough."_

" _Yes, but they will deal with that on their own."_

"They're as emotional stunted as they can be." Echo scoffs, arms crossed glaring at the buildings in the distance.

_"They will figure it out."_ Ep promises and Echo longs to believe them, that they will actually change this world and prevent the deaths of those they love. _"This time will be different."_

"If you say so." And they both watch as Alex parks her motorcycle outside the building, riding up quickly to Kara's apartment. Neither of them want to watch this and Echo steps back, letting their ears tune into something other than Kara and Alex tearing each-other apart. Astra is once again looming a few buildings behind them, taking in everything she can of the time traveler and her niece as well as the agent.

* * *

* * *

Alex stands in the middle of Kara's apartment, watching as Kara struts around the apartment like her feet didn't touch the floor, like she was meant to walk on air. Alex is trembling as Kara glares at her, it had all gone downhill the moment she walked in. They'd started off arguing in heated words but now there is a dark look in Kara's eyes that confirms that this will continue to fall apart around them. "You are not my sister! We don't even share _blood."_

"Kara, _please."_ Alex trembles, itching to leave, to grab the bottle of whiskey she's hidden in Kara's cabinet and drown out these emotions and thoughts she should have learned to bury long ago.

"No!" Kara glares at her and if it were anyone else her heat vision would have activated by now, but this is Alex, the girl she's known for almost half her life. "Stop trying to control me!"

Alex shakes her head, wanting all of this to be over. "I'm not, I've never tried."

"Wear this Kara, do this Kara." And her voice takes on the perfect inflection of Alex, but it doesn't sound like Alex, it sounds like Alex parroting Eliza. It sounds like what they both grew up hearing, usually with Alex's name instead of Kara's. "Don't do this Kara."

Alex trembles, shaking her head. "I was just trying to protect you."

"By lying to me?!" The crux comes out quickly, Kara plowing forward with a tensile rage that she had ignored and was now coming forward. "By forcing me to hide!? I could be on top of the world." She steps closer, eyes going darker, tilted to meet Alex's. "We could."

Alex's heart stutters, there's a catch in her lungs and her blood thrums through her body as she fight to stay controlled. "Kara, this isn't you."

"This is the most me I've ever been." Kara steps closer and Alex takes a step back, wanting to keep distance between them for fear of what she might do, not what Kara might do. "Don't you like it? I don't have to hold anything back now, you don't have to." Kara is boxing her in with her body and her words, hitting every thought they had both had. Everything they had shoved away with years spent together and apart. "Eliza doesn't matter, we can do as we please Alex." Kara rests a hand on Alex's cheek, hotter than normal but just as reverent as usual. "Just say yes."

Alex's entire body is tighter than a coil but she sags under Kara's hand, jaw trembling and eyes fluttering. "I _can't."_

"Why am I never enough!" Kara back away now, throwing something across the room. Alex doesn't flinch even as a mirror shatters, her chin still trembles with emotion and she stares at Kara with all the love in the world as Kara's eyes glow red and her kryptonian chest trembles. "My mother sent me away, _lied_ to me. My aunt refuses to side with me, Cat Grant got another assistant to show me she doesn't care! James wants his cake while he eats it! Am I just not enough for anyone?" There's that bleeding rage under there, but also deep consuming pain. "Am I not _enough_ for you? Is that why you lied to me all these years? Why you shoved me away!?" She speeds over to Alex again, pressing close to her, feeling the jackhammer of her heart, quick but not full of fear. "Don't you see, we could be great, there is nothing holding us back now. Nothing!"

Alex wants to lean into her, this isn't her Kara, but this is Kara. A Kara who lost the perfect hold on her rage. A Kara that is pushing past boundaries unconsciously set up by Eliza Danvers. Instead of leaning into Kara like her body and mind beg her to she leans back into the wall, sagging against it. "I can't Kara."

Kara scoffs, veins glowing red around her eyes and her hand settles on the wall by Alex's head, trapping her even though they both knew she wouldn't move. Wouldn't leave Kara like this. "Can't or won't Alex?"

"The DEO can fix you Kara." Alex itches to touch her, to press into her and tell her everything will be alright. "Just, just come with me."

"There's nothing wrong with me!" That red glow is there again, a poison flooding her thoughts, pushing everything to the surface. "I'm free, freer than I've ever been."

"This isn't you." Alex's voice cracks finally, and she's staring at Kara, imploring her to listen.  "This is Lord's kryptonite."

"Lord?" Kara is looming over her with the scant few inches she has on Alex. In this moment she looks like Goliath staring down at David. "You're conspiring with him!? He doesn't deserve you, he doesn't deserve to breathe the same air as you." She grabs Alex quickly, speeding her to the balcony with fingers that leave bruises, Kara's usual caution forgotten with the hazy aura of red kryptonite. "This city could be _ours_ Alex, I can offer you more than him. Don't you love me?"

"Kara, please." And Alex is cracking under the strain of watching Kara break in front of her. "Please."

Kara back away at the hitch in Alex's voice then her eyes start glowing and the air trembles around them. "You've always been horrible at being distracting, I can hear the DEO vans." Kara scoffs and there's a tremble to her jaw. "I _trusted_ you."

Echo follows after her easily enough, Kara too distracted by the red in her veins to realizes shes being tailed by two people. She crashes through Lord Technology like a wrecking ball, careless of the humans in there as she searches for Maxwell Lord. The DEO vans are rumbling in the distance, having picked up Alex and making their way here. Scant minutes away where it took Kara seconds to make it. "Supergirl." Lord's smile is everything it always is and Echo grits their teeth. "What can I do for you."

"Stay away from Agent Danvers." And Kara is glowering at him, chest heaving.

Lord holds his hands out, lips twitching but there is a dark glint in his eyes. "Now now, why would I want to do that?"

Supergirl, no, Kara Danvers glares at him, veins glowing red around her eyes and black suit sucking in all the light. "You are a leech, you don't deserve her."

"And you do?" He lifts his eyebrow up. "Is that what this is? A jealous outrage? A temper tantrum because you're not getting what you want? Is this what National City's hero has fallen too?" He grins at her then, wide and taunting.

The doors burst open and Alex is there, heart thundering away as she tries to de-escalate the situation. "Supergirl, stop."

"Yeah, call your lapdog off Agent Danvers." Lord waves his fingers in the direction of the superhero, looking every bit as unperturbed witness he thinks he is. Or would be if his heart wasn't thundering in his chest, if he wasn't sweating through his suit. "She's becoming a nuisance."

Alex lets out an aggravated noise. "This is your fault Lord, I suggest you shut your mouth."

He laughs loud and opens his arms wide, motioning to his crumbling walls. "My fault?"

"You're faulty kryptonite did this." His eyes spark at the confirmation and there's something dangerous in them that makes Alex's hackles stand on end. "Don't worry, you'll be held accountable Lord."

He steps closer and grins at Alex like they won't cart him away again, like she won't slam his head into another desk. "Will I get a lawyer this time?" 

"Enough!" Kara scream, eyes glowing red. "Get _away_ from her."

He smirks at Kara before letting his eyes rake over Alex's form. "Touchy touchy. Tell me, while she was on a date with me, what were you doing?" Kara lets out a shout, racing forward. 

Alex moves without thought shoving Lord out of the way and getting clipped by a speeding kryptonian. She hits the ground with a groan, the snap of a bone audible before she rolls to her feet. Lord reaches for her with wide eyes, fearful now in this moment and Kara's eyes are zeroed in on the crack in Alex's arm when she is tackled suddenly. "Let me go! He hurt her!" Her heat vision activates and almost takes Lord out with it, if a black gauntlet had wouldn't have covered her eyes. The material sizzles but does not give way. Kara lets out a howl, throwing Echo across the room.

Echo grunts as they hit the ground and roll, agents ready their guns and Echo reacts without thought, snapping the arm of one of them and knocking the other unconscious when they try to aim at Kara. Supergirl comes for them with a howl of rage, focused now on the interloper that kept her from hurting Lord, that kept her from Alex. And Echo ducks and dodges hits but never strike out their own, fearful of hurting Kara. A piece of the building crumbles under their fight and almost takes both Alex and Lord with it, but a blur of black shoves them out of the way before tackling Kara. Kryptonian hands cover eyes that threaten to spill with heat and a hand pins Kara's arms to her back.  "Enough Little one, you risk hurting her." Astra sits atop her niece, brow furrowed in worry. 

Alex reaches for a gun at the shoulder of another agent before firing. Kara screams at the blue beam hits her and Astra snarls at the Agent before she sees that Alex has dropped the gun and is stumbling to get to Kara's side. Echo throws another of Lord's security men across the room when he tries to move forward. "Kara?" Alex presses fingers to Kara's cheek, looking for something that none of the others can comprehend. Kara's eyes flutter and she groans and Alex relaxes. Astra releases her hold when there is suddenly a burst of green and she falls with a pained scream. General Lane is glaring at them, gun in hand when Echo moves forward to help, only to be hit with enough electricity to take down an elephant. They convulse before they hit the ground and Alex pulls Kara into her lap, wary of the General, her own men coming around her, a wall between them and the General.

* * *

* * *

"What do you call yourself?" J'onn in Hank Henshaw form, secret identity safe for now, questions Echo in the DEO holding room. General Lane is glaring at Echo, his men had tried to pry the helmet off of them to no avail. Had threatened to used fire, electricity. Echo had laughed at them, it sounded like a car backfiring but it had made General Lane grow redder than a tomato.

Echo grins, unseen by those in the room, leaning back lazily into heir chair to goad General Lane even more. "Many have heard me, but no one has seen me, and I will not speak back until spoken to. What am I?"

General Lane is scowling, hands tight on the table, every bit of uncontrolled rage as he had been in the future. "You show up unannounced and take down government agents."

Hank Henshaw sighs and interrupts General Lane quietly. "Echo." The helmet moves as if the person's eyes are connecting with his and a shiver runs down his spine. "The answer to the riddle you gave me."

"That is what they call me." There's an inflection to the voice there, gentle and broken so very different than the way they speak to General Lane. J'onn feels something in his chest tighten, there is a familiarity to the figure he can't place. A softness, an inflection of tone and the way they slouch that niggles at the back of his mind. 

"Echo?" General Lane scoffs.

Echo changes before them, moving from languished to tense. "Time echos General. Do you want to know what you bring in my time?" The General narrows his eyes as Echo leans forward, voice going hard and sharp, the helmet forcing the words out as a garbled angry mess. "I've seen the future Lane, you bring death. Destruction. Your hate leads to the fracturing of bonds and your daughters die. _Both_ of them."

General Lane stiffens, and his eyes darken, hand reaching for a gun that no longer rests on his hip. "Are you _threatening_ my family?"

Echo scoffs, J'onn wishes he could read their mind, see past the eons of time and echos of past and future that filter and cloud the mind of this person who claimed to want to save them. General Lane's head is clouds of anger and fear that threaten to oppress J'onn's own calm mind. "No, but you chase the oldest into the clutches of enemies. You order the youngest into territory she does not belong in. They die at the hands of those you call  _friends."_

So he leans forward, face still reddened and sweat on his brow, but his eyes are narrowed slits of suspicion. "What do you know?"

"I know where you want to send me." General Lane stiffens and Echo tilts their head to the side. "After all, we're the property of the government aren't we? No moral obligations to extraterrestrials."

J'onn, still parading as Hank, barely keeps himself from flinching, but he's had centuries to perfect his poker face. Though he can't hide the suspicion in his voice as he narrows his eyes at Lane, his mind is suddenly a flurry of activity, too quick for J'onn to follow. "General?"

"Enough Director." And General Lane is stepping back, jaw clenched. "They'll be going to a secure Government facility for interrogation and the DEO will be investigated. You allowed Supergirl to get out of hand, again. DEO has frozen assets now, with Colonel Harper in charge. I hope you have nothing to hide." And he glares at Echo before leaving the room, J'onn eyes Echo but leaves, it wouldn't dwell to stay and talk to the time traveler, not when he had things to plan.

* * *

* * *

"Have you no powers time traveler?" Astra hisses out, pale with exhaustion and sickness and face awash with the glow of kryptonite on her wrists and in her veins as they are transported to Cadmus.

Echo lets out a hum, they've chained them tightly to the seat, the soldiers having been unable to get their amour or helmet off. "Patience."

Astra sneers at them, fists clenching before they eyes their guard. He stares at them with narrowed suspicion, but his hand never touches the gun strapped to his waist, too confident that they are immobilized. Echo tilts their head to the side, Ep speaking slowly. " _She knows little of patience Echo. Used it all up trapped too long in the Phantom Zone."_

Echo huffs, grumbling under their breath, the helmet garbling and the respirator wheezing. "She will wait impatiently then. He'll come through, he has too."

" _What makes you so sure?"_

"I trust him with my life."

Astra eyes her as does the guard. He glares at them, grunting out. "Who're you talking to?"

Echo grins, slightly manic, not that either of them would see it. "The voice in my head." They lean forward as far as they can, letting the chains around the creak. "They tell me you better surrender."

The man scoffs. "Fucking crazy aliens." He seems annoyed but his fingers brushed the gun at his side, nervous. Astra just eyes them curiously.

There is the sound of gunfire before the transport van screeches to a halt and Echo moves quickly,  snapping the metal shackles around them as the metal seemingly ages until brittle and slamming their helmet into the guard's face. They grab the man and squeeze his throat tightly as his hands grow slack and his head spins from the blow, the threat of the same fate as the shackles happening to him there. "I need the destination of this van." The man trembles in their hold, eyes wide and the smell of piss fills the van. 

Astra watches with narrowed eyes, nose scrunched up in disgust before the door is yanked open. "I'm letting two fugitive aliens go with another who has been parading as director, you better explain this to me." The other person, far shorter than the man that wrenches the open the door murmurs.

"I will in due time." J'onn has another form, skin pale and hair red, Astra recognizes his smell and Echo grins under their helmet at his familiar grumble. "Miss In-Ze, Echo."

"Hello." Echo grunts out, hand tightening around the man's throat.

Lucy's voice is sharp and her muscles tense as she watches the two aliens in the hold, J'onn moves forward quietly to release Astra, unable to bring her to the DEO for safe holding with Lane on a rampage. "What are you doing?" Lucy is glaring at Echo, hands reaching for her gun.

Echo softens, recognizes the look in Lucy's eyes. "Getting the location of Cadmus."

Lucy relaxes slightly, tilting her head to the side. "Why?"

Echo scoffs and the helmet filters the sound out like the wheeze of a dying car. "Why not?"

There is a quietness to them as J'onn finishes releasing Astra and Lucy eyes Echo before shoving through with a sharp focus. "What does Cadmus do?"

"Impossible horrendous things." Echo turns to Lucy, easily holding the man in the air like he isn't twice their size and weight. They take in Lucy, one who isn't bleeding and dead, cold in the ground. "They kill many people in my time, you included." Astra takes this as leave to disappear, shaking the transport van as she rockets out of it.

* * *

* * *

Echo sits atop CatCo, the highest building in National City. "We've got Cadmus, we can take them down."

_"Myriad is happening in less than four hours Echo."_

Echo stiffens, their shoulders dropping as reality catches up with them. "Dammit. J'onn isn't with Eliza because they didn't go on the run."

_"Exactly. We can only hope Kara can bring Alex back."_ Echo scoffs at this, it hadn't worked in their time and Ep is too optimistic.

* * *

 

Echo watches as Alex comes to, shuddering and throwing the kryptonite sword as far away from her as she can. Her knees shake and she crumbles to the ground, Kara catching her before she hits it. "I got you." Kara murmurs quietly, there's blood on her lip and arm, but she is otherwise unharmed from her fight with A mind controlled Alex.

Alex shudders, pressing her hand against Kara's heart and burying her face into her neck, her entire body shaking. Echo lets out a shuddering sigh. "It worked."

_"You didn't think it would?"_

Echo watches the two of them murmur soft words to one another, unwilling to listen in. "I worried."

_"There is not so much pain and distance between them."_

_"_ Astra's alive, there's not so many secret between them I guess." Echo takes a step back, they had more to do and the two of them deserved a moment alone.

Ep hums low, letting their voice soothe the edges to Echo's mind. _"No, not too many."_

Echo leaves quickly, heading to where they knew they were needed next. "Indigo will make the signal stronger."

" _We have a lightning bug that's keen on living."_

Echo snorts, taking in the eery silence of the streets. "And a kryptonian General now on our side."

" _Her niece's side."_

Echo grins, something lightening in their chest at what had just happened. "Semantics."

" _Do you have a plan?"_

"You're in my head, you must know it."

Ep lets out a frustrated noise that bounces around the inside of Echo's head. " _Echo._ "

"We'll get our little firefly to fight Indigo, Non will have his men loaded onto the ship at her behest like before and all will be fine."

_"Will she fly it into space again?"_

Echo stops their running, stilling as time catches up to them. The air fluttering around them. "You tell me Ep, is that one thing I can change?"

_"It lead to many confessions."_

Echo lets out a defeated sigh through their nose. "I can de-age the ship, allow its thrusters to work. She can fly it to the atmosphere and release it, as long as we stop Indigo all should be well."

_"She will fall back to earth?_ "

"Alex will get her." And there's something of a finality to their voice. "Always has and always will."

_"And after?"_ Ep cautions, they can feel time catching up to them, the edges of reality shifting.

"We get Cadmus, we take them down with or without their help."

* * *

* * *

And so they watch as Leslie Willis, Livewire, squares off against Indigo after a few choice words from Echo after releasing the electricity bound woman. "Why so blue sweetie?" Leslie taunts before disappearing into a flash of sparks, shifting through the electronic system of Fort Rozz.

Indigo follows after her. "Get out of my systems you _bug!"_ Leslie's cackle sounds through the systems and the ship lurches slightly as they fight in and throughout the systems of it.

Non slams into the ground with another kryptonian seconds later and Astra follows after him, standing in front of Kara like she could stop the two of them with will alone. "You would betray our cause General?" Non's voice is hitched with betrayal and shock.

Astra keeps her chin high as Echo hurries over to the ship, pressing their hands into it. "It is not the cause I planned, another race needs not die."

Non scoffs, a dark look in his once kind eyes. "They are bugs beneath our feet."

"You've allowed the braniac into your head." Astra's voice is controlled yet there is a hint of pleading in it, a hint of a woman who had spent years with Non at her side. "Do not do this Lieutenant."

"We can rule the Galaxy." And he is desperate, eyes wide and longing.

Kara is tense at her back, awaiting the signal. "I will not allow you to destroy another race as we destroyed our own." Non scoffs and Astra moves forward before he can grab her niece, throwing him into the sky, before following after him. The other kryptonian body slams into Supergirl, lashing out with fists and feet before Kara hones in her heat vision to him. He staggers and grabs a glowing green knife at his belt, his blue anti-kryptonite shield glowing on his chest. Kara stiffens and J'onn shows up from the shadows, tackling the kryptonian and throwing the knife far away as Non and Astra break the sound barrier above them, demolishing the earth and sky with their powers. "GO!"

Kara hits the ground beside Echo, eyeing the blue as it creeps from Echo's hands to the ship, pulling away rust and hole, fixing what was broken. Sparks come shooting out of the ship and Indigo is a pile of blue scarps below a grinning Livewire. "That was fun."

"Your debt is done." Echo murmurs, Leslie eyes Supergirl. "Go, your job is done, she has her own to do."

Livewire grins, sparks dancing around her. "Pleasure was all mine tall dark and mysterious." She zips away with a flash of sparks as J'onn lands down beside them.

"What happens now?" He question quietly. Astra and Non are gone, no trace of them in the sky. Kara anxiously searches and listens for them but her aunt had torn Non away from Kara, brought him someplace he couldn't hurt her niece.

Echo releases the ship, having finished what they needed. "Myriad will continue to transmit until it kills every human on earth."

"How do we stop it?" Kara questions, Echo looks up high. "Oh, I thought so." Kara sets a hand on Echos shoulder. "Thank you."

"You'll be fine, the thrusters will kick in once you hit space." Echo promises "All will be well."

Kara snorts. "I didn't think you'd be an optimist." She looks to the martian. "J'onn, I just. Tell Alex."

"Tell her yourself. I believe in you." He pulls her in for a hug then she grabs the ship, pushing with all her might. Echo and J'onn watch as it climbs higher and higher into the sky, ignoring Kara and Alex as they speak over the comms. "Did you mean it, that she would be fine?"

Echo tilts their head to look at the man who died nobly in the future. Saving those he could. "Never doubt the perseverance of love J'onn J'onzz."

He smiles at them. "I know not the future, so I will trust you." His eyes narrow as something shining and blue shoots out of the desert and into the sky. "Is that?"

Echo grins, J'onn can't see it but he can hear it in their voice. "I told you never to doubt love." J'onn lets out a disbelieving laugh that shakes when Astra hits the ground next to them, dropping her husband's body beside the other dead kryptonian, her eyes are haunted as she watches the blue dot in the distance.

Astra eyes the speck in the distance critically. "What is that?"

Echo tilts their head back, letting the sun wash over their helmet, heat their face up. "Your niece's savior."

Astra's face breaks, the stonic warrior facade cracking. "Kara's alive?"

"She'll be sore, but she'll live."

 

* * *

* * *

Echo leaves them to their reunion, to Astra standing in the middle of the DEO at J'onn, Hank's, side, Lucy beside them. Alex and Kara in the med-bay, pressed together like they'd never leave one another again. They leave them to their joy in this moment, heading to where they known Cadmus resides. They touch the doors and allow them to deteriorate slowly under their hands. Alarms sound but Echo has eyes for one among the masses, blowing through them all until she has him. Grabbing him by his shoulder and pulling him to a different building with help from Ep's blood filtering through her body, blurring around the edges, leaving a haze of blue in their wake. He stumbles out of her hold, going green in the face at the speed. "Jeremiah Danvers."

He gains his footing, staring at Echo in suspicion. "I can't say I know your name."

"No, but you need to stop." Echo's voice threatens to tremble and the only thing keeping them steady is Ep's constant calming presence. "If you continue Alex and Kara will both die."

"You see the future?" He scoffs out, left hand trembling.

"No, i'm from it." They step close, letting Jeremiah see the blue that edges around them when they use their abilities. "You aren't the man you used to be."

He lets out a noise through his nose, eyes dark and haunted. "None of us are, i'm doing what I can to protect my family."

"I'm sure that helps you sleep at night, but you're wrong!" Echo throws their hands wide, watches as Jeremiah holds the flinches back. "You're destroying your family."

"You don't know Cadmus, what they have." He trembles again but his face remains impassive, so unlike before Cadmus when he expressed everything. "What they do. You can't stop them."

"We can, we will." Echo steps closer, voice rasping with desperation. "I just need you to come with me, for your family."

He takes a step back, shaking his head. "I can't do that, Cadmus will kill them."

"Then they're dead anyway by Cadmus!" Echo shakes like a leaf in a storm, voice hinged in almost manic need. "If you help us, you can protect them."

"Funny." Jeremiah grunts out, eyeing the time traveler like they were insane. "Cadmus said the same."

Echo drops their head to their chest, the helmet clinking against their chest plate. "I. I didn't want it to come to this."

"You're going to kill me, just like that?" And he sounds annoyed but there's something like relief there as well.

"If I don't, you'll kill everyone I know. People I love. I _can't_ allow that to happen." Echo hasn't stopped trembling, their voice shakes with each sentence. "I'm giving you one last chance, please come with me. _Please."_

Jeremiah drops his head to his chest and the sun is falling behind the horizon, taking the light of day with it. "You can't make promises you can't keep."

Echo lets out a choked sound. "I didn't want it to come to this again."

Jeremiah looks up sharply, swallows thickly as he stares at a face he can't see. "So you've killed me before?"

Echo shakes their head, jaw trembling as they try to convince themselves to do this again, to have his blood on their hands again. "You did horrible horrible things, I had no choice."

"Did?"

Echo shrugs, gone is the confident being from the future. "You haven't done them yet."

His shoulders square back and he stands ready as if they'll execute him then and there, chop his head off and be done with it. "Then you know I did them for my family."

Echo lets out something between a scoff and a sob, shaking their head. "Doesn't always excuse it."

"And you killing me, is that for your family? For those you love?"

"It's to protect them and the world." Echo can ignore Ep warnings flashing in their head, if to just hear Jeremiah talk again. To see him again and try to fix what went wrong. "And you, you don't deserve to go down that road."

He nods as if to accept his fate, his eyes are soft and full of so much pain. "If you kill me, they'll understand? Forgive you?"

"No, I don't think they will, at least not until its over."

"Cadmus will come for them, when I die." And he speaks like Echo has already made up their mind, like they aren't breaking in front of him. "They'll be nothing holding them back."

"Then don't die. Come with me." Echo steps closer, reducing to begging like they had in the other world, they just hoped it would work this time, that Jeremiah Danvers wasn't too far gone in this time. "Either way Cadmus will come for them. But this way, this way you see your family again."

He looks up sharply hands shaking as he stares at Echo, seems to see through the helmet like it doesn't hide everything about Echo. "I'm not the man I used to be."

Echo holds their hand out, waiting to see if he'll take it. "None of us are who we used to be but time brings all things to pass."

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

Ep is going quiet in her head as the explosion hits the last Cadmus building. _"I think this is the end Echo."_

Echo stumbles from the wreckage of the Cadmus facility they had taken down with help from Jeremiah and planning on their part. "The invasion will still happen, Luthors are still alive. Do you think we fixed it?"

_"I can feel time taking us away."_ And Ep's voice is growing more and more distant, like they're fading away. _"We fixed what had gone wrong in our time. The rest is up to them now, you did well."_

Echo lets out what could either be a chuckle or a sob, their respirator hissing and clanking. "I think i'll miss you Ep."

_"And I you, I regret that we will not know one another in this timeline."_ Ep sounds wistful, letting their love and contentment fill Echo's head for comfort.

Echo rubs at their aching chest as they spot the sunlight streaming through a hole, making their way to it with stumbling legs and harsh breaths. "I'll miss them. I'll miss you, this."

_"We won't even know what we're missing."_ There's a pressure in their head, soft and loving, a gentle caress of an alien Echo had grown fond of, used to hearing and feeling. There's a small ache in their chest at the thought of being alone again. _"In another time Echo."_

"Good-bye Ep." Their presence is growing fainter and fainting in Echo's head. "Thank you." They make their way to the final edge of the downed building, coming from it's depths into the sunlight. Each breath hurts, their entire body hurts, but they don't want to go out in the darkness, buried under rubble, not again.

Echo tilts their head back when they clear the building, hands scrambling across hidden latches on the broken helmet before it falls away. The sun glints off the visor of the helmet before the person that was once under it falls to their knees, pulling in air with wheezing gasps. Kara, who had just come from the depths of the other side, bloodied but victorious, stares at Echo in shock as dark hair catches in the wind. _"Alex?"_

"Been a long time." Echo pants, blood dripping from their nose and slipping out of their mouth, thick against the inside of their throat. "Since I've been called that."

Supergirl falls to her knees beside the time traveler called Echo, now revealed to be Alex Danvers from the future. Her face is more angular, gaunt with age and desperation, scars stretch down the right side of her face and eyes are a dull hazel, hair a tangled bloodied mess. "What are you d-. What _happened?"_

"You died, the world fell." Future Alex presses her forehead into Kara's shoulder, blood stains the suit where the time-traveler touches and she's wheezing with each breath she pulls into her lungs. "I had to stop it. I went back in time to save you."

Kara's throat is tight and she clutches her hands against Alex's shoulders, wary of hurting her. "What happens to you now?"

Alex laugh, deliriously happy. "I prevented the timeline, I fade now. Never to exist."

"You're dying?" There's a crack in Kara's voice, hands trembling across bloodied shoulders.

"I don't think I've been _alive_ since you died." Fingers encased in metal tear at each other until they fall away and a severely scarred hand reaches up to pressed into Kara's cheek, fingers trembling before stilling the second she touch warm kryptonian skin. "I'm glad I get to see you before I go. I missed you. _So_ much."

"Your Kara." Kara's hand comes up to cradle the one touching her cheek. "She died?"

Tears drip down Alex/Echo's face. Catching on the scars that mar the right side of her face. "I tried to stop it."

"I don't, why can't you stay?" Kara rocks back until she's sitting and Alex's head cradled to her shoulder, the woman sitting in her lap, wheezing like each breath hurts. "You've helped so much."

"I'm just an echo of the real Alex." There's a bloodied chuckle, thick with oncoming death. "A future that could have been. I think i'm fine with ceasing to exist knowing that I stopped it. That you have each other. That you'll live. "

Kara presses her hand to the back of Alex's head, fingers gripping the tangles of hair there. "What do you need?"

"Could you, could you just hug me?" And her words crack, shoulders trembling. "I haven't hugged Kara in years."

Kara pulls her in tight, despite the blood and the wounds. She hugs her as tight as she can, feels the metal threatening to give way under her strength. Alex begins to grow fuzzy around the edges, bright like she had when she first transported to them. "Thank you." Kara presses a kiss to the scarred cheek. "I owe you _everything."_

Alex shakes her head, letting out a shuddering scoff. "You owe me nothing Space Cadet." Kara laughs out a wet broken laugh at the name and future Alex grins, bloodied teeth and all, there's a spark that brings previously dull hazel alive. "Rao I missed your _laugh._ I missed you Kara."

Kara nods sharply, tears dripping down her face. "I'm not going anywhere."

Alex pulls back, blinks slowly up at Kara, taking in a face she hasn't seen in years up close. "Take care of each-other."

"Always." Kara promises and swallows thickly as future Alex's heart thuds slower and slower, as her lungs stutter with each wheezing breath. _"You have been the sun of our lives."_ Future Alex lets out a soft sigh at the familiar kryptonian. _"Our prayers will be the sun that lights your journey home."_  Kara's voice catches, and she can hear others searching for them. _"We will remember you every dawn and await the night to join you in the sky. Rao's will be done."_  

Alex lets out a happy sigh, closing her eyes inexplicably warm despite the blood loss and an image dances in front of her eyes, Kryptonian warm arms around her, skin flush with heat and love. A sense of contentment. "Rao's light." Her voice is no longer cracking, but thick with awe and love, her wheezing breaths are stilling, fingers tremble and a smile, blinding with love, pulls across her lips. "My _Kara."_ She vanishes slowly, her blood staining Supergirl's suit as Astra steps from the shadows, Alex coming right beside the superhero as Kara's arms slowly fall through the air, the person she was holding disappearing. Kara looks heart broken before yanking present Alex into her arms, crying softly, clinging to her Alex. Astra watches the blue light flutter away, caught in the wind and shining in the sun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This idea had been sitting for months before I decided to post it, so I hope you guys enjoy. There may be a prequel of sorts where I delve into the world/timeline where Kara died when I get the chance. Thanks again for reading:)


	6. Society's Expectations (Omegaverse): Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snippets of the life of Kara Danvers (Zor-El), the last omega daughter of Krypton.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written long before I knew that Kara learned English in the pod, so her learning English play some role in this. (This has been in my drafts since the very beginning of the first season of Supergirl.)
> 
> Also this is like my second time writing Omegaverse so be gentle, also if Omegaverse isn't for you then you probably shouldn't read this chapter? Though there's no explicit content or anything, more world building with this first chapter than anything.

The pod crashes into the ground with a thundering earth shattering rumble. Blue eyes blearily flutter open. The pod still smells like home and the door opens with a gentle whoosh. Blue eyes meet a familiar blue and Kara stares at the dark haired man wearing the House of El crest. There is a comfort that comes from him. His scent, his eyes and the crest stretched across his broad chest. "Who are you?" He questions gently, voice calm and soothing but the words and language foreign and guttural.

She squares her shoulders back like her father always had and speaks with the stern enunciation of her mother. _"My name is Kara Zor-El, I was sent to Earth. Who are you? Why do you wear the House of El?"_

 _"Do you shout kryptonese only?"_ His words are too thick with a strange accent, too broken and jumbled. His face is screwed up like he is filtering words that he should know by heart.

Kara's eyes narrow and she tilts her chin high. " _My tone is normal, I do not shout. Who are you?"_

His lips tremble as if to grin and he splays his fingers across his chest, across the House of El sigil, larger than any house symbol was meant to be. _"I am Clarke Kent. Kal-El."_

She stiffens and glares at him, her skin prickles and her body hums with rage at his audacity. _"You lie, Kal-El is my baby cousin."_

 _"No."_ And he softens around the edges, looks so much like Jor-El in that moment that Kara listens to him. She can see Lara in his smile too, soft and rueful like when she had held Kal the first time. " _I landed on earth many years ago."_

Something like loss floats in her eyes and her shoulders drop, voice shaking. _"I am meant to protect you."_

His smile is gentle and he holds his hand out, offering her it. _"I'm not a baby anymore cousin. Come, we will go. I know people who will aid."_

The world is too bright and the air thick with scents, the sun is a blinding yellow. Too bright and it throws the colors off. There is no red haze of Rao watching over her here. There are fields of food that she watches pass by and aches to touch. Her hand is cupped in his. His scent is familiar yet so very different. His eyes the same bright blue they had been when he was born. It is him and her heart is confused and aching. Krypton was gone and had been gone for years. He was the last son of Krypton but he was the Hero of Earth. He was unknown to her.

They hit the ground with a soft puff of air and he presses something into her hand, the house of El symbol is etched into it and her heart aches, something deep and painful, at the familiar technology. _"It will help with your_ English. _They speak it here."_

She cradles it like it will break in her hand. _"I don't know this_ English."

 _"You will teach as I have taught kryptonian."_ His face is twisted in sympathy but there is a stern set to his jaw, his shoulders wider than even Jor-El's. He would tower over his mother easily. 

Kara scoffs at him, still a child and so very lost. _"Your kryptonian is sloppy. You mix words."_

His jaw ticks and he sighs, kneeling down next to her. He sets a large hand over her shoulders, too thick and calloused to feel like her father's. " _They are scientists, they can help you more than I."_

She shakes her head quickly, he is her last family. He shares El blood with her. " _You are my cousin. Stronger together."_

His eyes are achingly conflicted and he ducks his chin, looking so very lost and young. _"I am not fit to care for a child. You will be in danger around me."_

 _"My mother sent me to care for you."_ Kara drops her chin to her chest, refusing to meet his eyes. They both have the house of El on their chest yet they couldn't be father apart. _"You are older than I now."_

His throat bobs and he struggles with the words in kryptonian. _"I am old, but my life dangerous. You need stability and safety."_

She stills her chest and nods her head. Two adults make their way down to them and Kara looks up to the window to see a dark haired girl staring down at her. There is no expression of her face but their eyes connect and then there is a blonde woman touching Kara's shoulder, smiling gently. Kara flinches back from the touch. The scent is strong, tangled with the male's and unfamiliar. It is something her instincts rebel against. Innate kryptonian genetics screaming at her that the woman is an enemy. _"She smells._ " Kara intone gently, voice low and polite despite the urge to crinkle her nose.

Kal-El looks at her curious, tilting his head to the side. _"She is alpha."_

Despite her upbringing into politics she finds her eyes widening on their own, heart thundering in her chest and her skin prickles like when she had Argo fever for three days. _"They have those here?"_ And it explains the way her body rebels against the woman's scent.

 _"Yes."_ And he still hasn't risen, is still at eye level with her thanks to his large frame. _"Alpha, Beta and Omega."_

She nods jerkily, he is looking at her like she hadn't taken enough history classes with Kelex to know this. _"We are omegas cousin."_

He tilts his head in a gentle nod, ignoring the scientists beside them for the moment as he eyes her curiously. " _Yes."_

Kara eyes her cousin in confusion, skeptical of this new world. " _How does their society function?"_

His face grows conflicted and he scrunches his nose. _"Alphas are more._ " He struggles with the words, voice still too thick and stilted and Kara ache for the high lilting voice of her mother. The soft soothing voice of her father and her aunt's accent, picked up from years away from Krypton. Kal's voice is nothing like theirs, nothing like home. _"They are warriors. Heads of business."_

She darts her gaze from Kal to the humans who are watching them curiously. " _Why?"_

 _"I don't know the words."_ His face turns and he scrunches his face once again, itching his jaw before stands and he turns to face the two scientists, explaining what they're talking about. "Kryptonian society was different. They had no alphas, she's confused."

Eliza's eyes spark and Kara looks between them in confusion, the words unknown as the blonde alpha woman focuses her attention on her cousin. She feels a burning need to shove the woman away from her cousin, protect him from something that haunted Krypton's archives. "How did that work?"

"They did not mate as humans do." And he is reciting it like he is reading it from a book, there is no anguish or confusion there. "The planet was dying so there were birthing laws. Alphas were too uncontrolled, so they altered them out of the genetic code as much as they could."

Eliza is bright with scientific curiosity. "And omegas?"

"From what I've read Omegas were warriors and politicians." He shrugs, and feels Kara step closer to him. He doesn't know whether its to seek comfort from him or some misguided need to protect him from Eliza. "My father was a beta, a scientist."

"And her?" Eliza looks at Kara curiously before moving her gaze back to Clark, he was an omega as well. A warrior it seemed by Kryptonian society. "Was she trained?"

"I don't know. Her parents were high up in political power I think." He shrugs adverting his gaze from them, slightly shamed at not having known about his cousin, let alone his aunt and uncle. "I've given her a translator to help her learn English. I have to go." He looks at the girl who he could see a familiarity about, but only from the edge of her eyes. Eyes that looked so much like his father's hologram. "Take care of her."

"We will."

Clark kneels down again, hands shaking as he settles them on Kara's shoulders. _"I know you were sent to protect me, but now I must protect you. The Danvers will help you acclimate to Earth, help you adapt. I wish you could come with me, but my life is dangerous."_

 _"Stronger together, I will watch your back."_ And she pokes his chest where the sigil of their house rests. _"I will be your shield."_

 _"No Kara, I need you safe."_ And his grip tightens on her shoulder, almost to the point it hurts. His eyes are as blue as her own, but they are growing frantic, like he fears for her. _"You are a child, you need to live a normal life. To grow up without worrying about me."_

She furrows her brow much like he had minutes ago as she settles her hands on his large elbows. _"But who will protect you?"_

 _"I have friends, family where I live._ " And his eyes are earnest, he is telling the truth and his hands remain steady on her shoulders. _"I will be safe."_

_"You are my blood Kal-El. The last of mine."_

His eyes dart around before he lets out a soft sigh. _"And you are mine, but I must do my duty and protect you. You are the child here not I, our roles have shifted."_

Kara's lips tremble. _"It was the last thing my mother told me to do."_

Clark nods sharply. _"I am safe and grown, I don't need you to look out for me. What I need is for you to live, your parents would have wanted that."_ He cradles her face now, like her father had, and she can see the soft confusion in his face before he murmurs soft words that make her choke. _"Rao watch over them._ " She repeats the words with a quaking voice and he presses a kiss to her forehead before standing, his cape flaps in the wind and then he is off without another word, disappearing into the yellow sunlight.

Jeremiah steps forward, smiling gently at Kara, who shies away from Eliza slightly now that he cousin is gone. He tilts his head as he kneels down to her level and takes the technology in his hand gently, he splits it apart and places a piece in her ear then the other in his own with an ease born from knowledge. It hums before silencing and he presses a button on the side. "My name is Jeremiah Danvers, I'm a scientist." It is the language Kal used, thick and too disjointed to be kryptonian. Too alien to her ears.

The man's words filter through her ear in a robotic monotone kryptonian, so unlike how the language was meant to sound. She swallows and then her hand fists over her heart, almost touching the crest that lies on her clothing as she speaks quietly. _"I am Kara Zor-El."_

Jeremiah smiles gently as the English filters through his ear, the technology translating it quickly. "It's nice to meet you Kara, are you hungry?"

She shrugs gently, loosening her fist as her chin tucks into her chest and her fingers tight around her mother's necklace. It is warm under her fingers. Eliza speaks quietly. "Lets introduce her to Alex and we'll get started on dinner."

Kara curiously looks up as the words from the woman are filtered through her ear piece, her eyes find the window, now empty of the girl. Her attention is captured when the man tilts his head to the side. She follows after him, eyes taking in the too bright sun and the noises growing louder. She rubs at her ears and eyes as she follows them into the house. The woman stops in the hallway and Kara looks up to see the girl standing on the stairs, impassive and confused yet wary. "Alex, this is Kara. She's going to be living with us, you need to watch out for her. She's an omega."

Alex looks over the small thin railed girl with light brown hair that could go blonde and pale skin but nods her chin minuscule. Kara looks to Jeremiah before speaking up, voice as sharp as her aunt's.  _"My status does not define me."_  The use of Kara's native tongue makes the younger alpha look over with narrowed eyes, there's a curiosity hidden in her dark eyes.

Jeremiah sighs and kneels down to her level, Kara narrows her eyes now. It seems whenever they wish to confront her they kneel. Did they recognize her status as the next in line of the El's or did they always kneel before those not of their world? "I know, but society is different on earth. Omegas aren't viewed as they were on your planet." He struggles for words. "We are not high on the list like alphas."

She narrows her eyes, it seems she was wrong if this man deems her as less. If this planet does. _"Why?"_

He lets out a mirthless chuckle. "Society is strange, i'll never know why."

There's something hot humming in her veins now, anger and her eyes sting, skin prickling like her anger is manifesting in her body. " _So I am less on Earth?"_

"No, no you are not less." And his fingers twitch as if to reach for her but he holds his instincts to comfort in, his wife and daughter watching the exchange with calculating eyes. "You are you. You're an omega, most people will over look you."

" _They are not warriors here?"_  And she thinks of her cousin, but he is not just omega, he is alien. Are Earthling set back so far that they allowed alphas to rule and omegas not to? _"Politicians?"_

"Not often." And he looks almost regretful, saddened. "Military goes to betas and alphas. Politicians are often betas, though sometimes alphas."

She narrows her eyes at them, Kal had said they were scientists, like her father, like Kal's. " _Scientists?"_

Jeremiah chews at his lip before speaking. "A slight mixture, though there are not many omegas in some of the fields."

 _"Why?"_ It's not so much a question as a demand, and Kara can't keep her nose from flaring, can't retain a professional appearance like her mother had sought to teach her.

"Prejudice." He's still kneeling, knee protesting against the hardwood but his eyes are soft and understanding. "You were of a higher family yes?"

" _We had political power yes."_ She narrows his eyes at the man, there is something about him. Soft yet un-malleable. " _My mother was judicar."_

His smile is not triumphant, but full of something like understanding. "That's what it's like for alphas. They have a better standing."

" _Because of the way they were born?"_ She mulls over it in her brain, her aunt was a warrior, her father a scientist and mother a judicar. Their statuses, positions on Krypton, were defined by the matrix, their biology. This earth did not seem to work with birthing matrix's, did not use a new birth to fill an empty role. They seem to use their status.

"Yes, just as you were born into politics." His eyes are bright like he has made a break through. "Society is not always good or easy."

The night passes with Kara sleeping in a new bed, one the Danvers had set up in their office, there's the promise to fix it all later in the week, give her her own space. The bed is not large like kryptonian beds, there are multiple small pillows instead of a long one and the sheets are to rough against her sensitive fingers. Kara tosses and turns for a bit before she digs around and grabs her white kryptonian garments that Jeremiah had placed in the hamper. Burying her nose in it she cries. They still smell of her mother and Krypton. Her fingers tighten and she breaks, letting out gut wrenching sobs. Her mother was gone, her father gone, Krypton was gone. Her entire culture, her planet, was gone. Erased from existence. Slowly she falls asleep, exhausted.

* * *

* * *

* * *

The first two weeks she breaks many things. She hunches in on herself, keeping her elbows tucked into her side and her hands tangled together in her lap. Alex watches her warily most nights. Especially the nights after Kara's shatters a glass in her hand when picking it up. The nights Kara reaches for a fork and bends it beyond repair. Jeremiah still presses soft hands to the omega's shoulders, gentle and understanding. "Your cousin tore my car door off its hinges one time." This brings a soft awkward smile, grateful but scared, to the young alien's face. "You'll get this Kara."

The first few nights she picks at her food, the adults worried eyes on her and Alex moodily running her fork over her food, barely touching it with a scowl on her face. "Alexandra, eat your food." Eliza's voice is sharp, reprimanding and Kara's entire body stiffens.

Alex scowls at her mother, combative like she had been the last few weeks. "Kara doesn't eat her food."

"Her stomach isn't used to earth's food yet." Jeremiah speaks softly, his eyes spark and he meet his daughter's gaze, cooling the fire in both his daughter and wife easily. "She'll out eat all of us soon."

Kara ducks her head, shoving the bland food in her mouth, the spices from their plates tickle her nose and that's enough to make her want to puke, body still unused to these spices, these herbs that force her nose to tingle and her stomach to roll. They had mostly liquid diet on Krypton, the planet running low on everything, their planet was dying when Kara left. Blending food together and attempting to season it best they could. She misses the one time a year they would have a large dinner, all the families there. The fresh fruit they had ordered from the plant house that the biomass matrix had spent all year making. 

She continues to stuff the oddly textured food down her throat until her stomach rolls and her face blanches. Kal said they didn't get sick, but she hadn't been here long enough to grow under the sun. Fit to random spouts of the powers Kal had talked about. She fears what more will come.

* * *

* * *

 

The next night she shatters a TV remote in her hand when she spots her house symbol on the screen, Superman hoodies and t-shirts. Bathing suits. Tattoos. Her chest is heaving and Alex doesn't even look up from her homework. "Did you seriously just break the TV remote?" The TV is on the lowest volume, Kara still learning to tune in and out sound. Kara's hands grind the plastic into dust and she starts to breath in quick panicked inhales. "Earth to E.T." Alex looks over at the small alien, furrowing her brows before they widen in shock at the state of the girl. "MOM! DAD!"

Her dad comes barreling down the stairs as her mother comes in from the kitchen. Eliza rushes over to the small girl, urged to comfort the child. "Eliza don-" The words don't make it from Jeremiah's lips when Eliza bends down to set her hands on the small child. Kara jerks back, instincts kicking in at the invading unfamiliar smell in her moment of panic. Her hands thrust out to shove the wrist away from her and there is a snap of bone and then wood as the young omega obliterates the couch, shoving back through it and embedding herself in a wall as Eliza yelps out and falls to her butt.

Alex jerks out of her seat. "MOM?!" She kneels down by her mother's side, glaring at Kara.

Jeremiah sighs looking to his mate, he get a small jerk of her chin and with the knowledge that she is fine he walks over to the other omega. "Kara, can you hear me?"

"Dad don't, she'll hurt you too." Alex is tense, body ready to do something, anything to protect her parents.

"She's confused Alex." Jeremiah's tone is soothing and calming pheromones fill the air as he tries to diffuse the tense situation. "She didn't mean to hurt your mom."

"She broke mom's wrist and the TV remote!" There's a low growl building up in Alex's chest as she glares at them. "She's breaking everything!"

"She doesn't have control of her strength yet." He crouches down in front of Kara. "Kid, I need you to look at me. Focus on me." Kara chest has completely stilled and her eyes flicker from the TV to Eliza and back again and again. "Kara Zor-El." Hazy blue eyes jerk to meet his. "That's it, focus on me okay? My scent, my heart beat. I want you to tell me what you hear. What you smell. What you see."

 _"Your hearts fast. Faster than normal."_ She still is hazy eyed, fingers begin to wring together over and over. _"You smell calm. Stressed. Worried._ " She shakes her head, rubbing at her nose. _"The Alpha's mad."_

He brushes her hair from her face. "Shh." His fingers catch on her translator but he smiles gently, his own translator tucked into his ears. Always there. "You just startled everyone, you're fine now." She leans into the smell of omega. It isn't the same as her mother's omega or her father's beta. She doesn't hug him, instead she tucks her arms around herself, hands gripping her own hip bones tightly in self hug. A seeking of comfort that she can't get from anyone here. "Okay, we're going to run Eliza to the hospital, you'll have to come with us."

Kara shakes her head. " _I can stay here."_

Jeremiah lets out this soft sound, and moves a strand of hair away from her eyes. "You've only just getting used to Earth Kara. You can't stay home alone, not yet."

 _"I won't get hurt."_ Her fingers tremble across her hips. _"I can protect myself."_

"Another time." He stands up slowly, pulling her from the wall with gentle hands. "Come on, it'll be fine."

Three weeks later when the school year is coming to an end and Kara still hadn't touched any of the humans again Eliza sighs, setting her cast cover arm on the table. "On the last day of school you will go with Alex, they know English is not your first language. I told them you could understand it but not speak it. They've decided to let you experience school and get the lay of it on the last day of school. Before summer begins."

 _"I do not want to go."_ Kara's kryptonian is quiet and strained with nerves and the English from the translator is monotone as it filter on speaker for the three humans to hear.

"I know." Eliza leans closer and Kara doesn't flinch back like she had the first few weeks here. "But Alex will be there and you'll have the translator."

"I do not want to go." Her chin trembles and she barely keeps it together. _"Can't I wait until the summer is over?_ "

Eliza steps forward, there's something like a command to her stance and tone, but it is softened by the gaze she has on Kara. "The easiest way to acclimate is to experience it first hand. It is only a half day, four hours. You will sit in the back of a class room, near Alex."

Alex looks up sharply. "She's going to shadow me all day?"

"Yes Alex." And that softness vanishes, Kara stiffens as Eliza glares at her daughter. "She needs to understand Earth custom. She must fit in."

Alex scoffs. "She's not even old enough to be in high school yet."

Eliza pinches the bridge of her nose, letting out a huff as she stares at her moody daughter. "She will be next year after she takes placement exams, which is why they've agreed to allow her in your classes."

"We won't even be doing anything." Alex grumbles, crossing her arms in all her teenage anger. "It's the day before summer break. It'll be games and year book signing."

Eliza stares at her daughter. "Alexandra."

"Fine." Alex huffs out, refusing to look at either her mother or Kara as she glares at the fridge. "She can be my creepy shadow."

"Alexandra." Eliza's voice is sharper than before, eyes glinting with something that make Kara stiffen even more so.

Alex ducks her chin down, glaring at the floor. "Sorry."

* * *

* * *

* * *

Alex leads Kara around with a scowl on her face. The young Kryptonian follows her around with wide eyes, moving from one classroom to the next. Sitting in the back while Alex talks to her friends and tries to ignore the invader to her home and school life. The bell rings and Kara covers her ears, wincing in the hall. Alex clenches her jaw, people stare at them, sniffing the air. Some of the older boys eyes Kara curiously, a new omega they hadn't grown up with. Alex sends them a glare, grabbing Kara's arm harsh enough to bruise a human but a touch like a feather for the kryptonian and dragging her down the hall. The girl flinches back, eyes wide and fearful at the harshness of the older girl. "You're drawing attention. Stop."

 _"Everything's so loud._ " Kara whispers in Kryptonian.

Alex shakes her head, jaw tight. "I can't understand you."

Kara shifts her gaze to Alex's bare ears and drops her gaze with a wince, Jeremiah had left it on the counter for Alex to take when he left for work. Kara can smell the anger coming off the human. Can see the distress in her eyes and tense muscles and the kryptonian hunches her shoulders and follows Alex to the room, the last class of the day. The teacher looks up gently, smiling at Kara and tilting her chin to the back. Kara sits in the corner, eyes darting around the room. It is filled with laughter and she rubs at her eyes when the room flickers between this one and the one beyond it. The bell rings again and she jumps. Alex ignores her, talking too quietly for Kara's translator to make out with a girl in the back.

Kara shifts nervously and the teacher comes to stand next to her. The woman kneels down. "Hello, I'm Miss Gilwood." Kara shakes her hand gently like Eliza had talked about and then quickly presses her hands back into her lap. "You understand me?" Kara nods her head and the teacher smile encouragingly. "Okay, i'm the math teacher. Today is a free day since it's the last, i'm allowing them to go to the P.E field for the hour to fly the planes they made, would you like to come along?"

Alex is watching them out of the corner of her eyes and Kara's brow furrows, she ducks her chin to her chest and shrugs. Something she had never done on Krypton. She had never made herself smaller. Had never hunched her shoulders and shrugged like she wanted to disappear. The teacher smiles gently and Kara gets a whiff of her scent. Omega, Kara shoulders slump and she looks up with confused eyes before spotting one of the math book under the desk. She eyes it curiously, taking in the almost familiar symbols and the teacher smile, reaching for it. She opens it across Kara's desk. "Do you like math?"

Kara think to the word, murmuring it quietly in kryptonian. Her translator catches it, whispering it in her ear and Kara looks up. "Numbers." Her voice is too high lit, the word coming out disordered but the woman smiles.

"You like numbers?" 

Kara swallows, fingers twitching and the teacher pulls out a pencil as another teacher leans his shoulders through the doorway. "One second Kara, okay?" The young girl nods and Miss Gilwood turn to face the other math teacher. "Can you take my class out for me? Keep an eye on them?"

The man snorts, shaking his head. The gold band on his left hand catches Kara's eyes as he runs it through his head. "Yes Ma'am. I'l keep 'em out of trouble."

The young woman smiles and turns to her class. "Mr. Umber is going to take you guys outside, don't forget to record your data for me."

The others scramble to get out to the sun and Alex stops, her friend walking ahead at her wave of hand. Miss Gilwood looks up with curious green eyes at the young Danvers. Alex shifts on her feet. "My parents said she had to stick with me."

"We'll be fine Alex, i'll bring her out at the end of class, let her get some sun." Alex shifts, her heart thunders away in her chest. "If your parents ask tell them I insisted, Kara seems to like math and that's my favorite subject." Miss Gilwood's red hair is twisted tight on her head, strands falling in front of her eyes as she grins at the young alpha. Alex nods jerkily, walking quickly out the door without looking back at Kara.

Kara shifts in her seat, fiddling with the book, her eyes are downcast and the teacher come to sit in the chair next to her. "How much math have you had?" Kara shrugs, flipping through the book before shrugging again. "Do you know all this already?" Kara nod softly. "You've taken Algebra already?" Kara sighs softly looking up in confusion as the woman gets up from the seat. "Give me a minute, I tech geometry and college algebra as well." The teach write some problems on the board and motions to Kara. "Do you know these ones?"

The young kryptonian walks forward hesitantly before nodding. The teacher offers her a marker and Kara solves it, murmuring kryptonian words quietly until they are translated to English. The board is a messy scribble of kryptonian and numbers before she gets the answer. The teacher stares at the board in shock. "You're thriteen?" Kara nods warily. "You just solved a calculus question my seniors struggled with."

Kara ducks her head, dropping the marker. She unintentionally made herself stand out, she aches for home. For a home where math was the first thing you learned, another language. Where Kara wasn't some young genius, she was just another kryptonian. Where her brain didn't work differently than the other kids. "You could be in my senior level class next year if you test in." Kara shrinks into herself. Alex hated it already when Kara drew attention to herself. The teacher stops her stunned words and looks gently at Kara. "It's okay to be good at something." Kara doesn't move and a cell phone goes off in the hall causing the girl to flinch at the sudden noise. The teacher looks at her. The refusal to meet her gaze, the quiet stressed air about her and the noise sensitivity. She reaches into her desk with gentle understanding eyes. "Here, put these on. They help one of my other students, we can sit here and solve math problems if you want." Kara's eyes widen and the teacher smiles. "Nobody has to know you solved very difficult problems, it'll be our secret if you want it to be."

Kara puts the headphones on and the sounds that were echoing the hallway, laughter, strange voices die down and she looks up with wide eyes. Miss Gilwood smiles gently at that, green eyes soft and understanding. She begins to write on the three white boards, a difficult number problem on each one. Kara holds the marker cautiously before moving forward, a soft smile gracing her lips. The time passes and a familiar scent invades the room. Kara stiffens, fingers tightening on the marker. It creaks and she struggles to loosen her grip, lowering her head and turning to the door. The teacher looks up form her desk curiously and sees Alex's face twisted in confusion as she looks at the board. "What did you do?" Kara pulls off the headphones and puts the translator back in, her eyes dart to Alex who is looking from the teacher to Kara.

Miss Gilwood tilts her head. "Alex, I thought I said I'd come out there?"

"My mother told me to watch her, I came in to check on her." She turns her attention from the teacher to Kara. "What did you do?"

Miss Gilwood steps in, speaking to the young alpha whose pheromones are flooding the room with anxiety and confusion. Maybe a little bit of anger. "Kara may not speak English but she understands math, she was uncomfortable with the others. She's fine in here."

Alex jerks her eyes to Kara's. "You're already strange enough, mom will kill me if she finds out this happened."

Miss Gilwood moves to stand beside Kara, Alex still near the doorway. Soothing pheromones fill the air as the teacher tries to calm them both down. "Alex calm down, Kara did nothing wrong."

"She solved equations that the seniors can't even do!" Kara flinches back at the anger and desperation there.

Miss Gilwood shuts the door quietly, and her voice drops low with disappointment and command. "Alex, lower you voice."

Alex glares at the teacher, eyes darting between the boards and the two omegas. "This isn't fitting in Kara." Kara drops her chin.

The teachers face hardens. "Enough Alex." The young alpha glares at the teacher. "I know you think this will ruin everything but being who you are does not make you a freak. Do not judge someone because they are different than you. I thought you were better than this."

Alex clenches her jaw. "First my mom and now my teacher." Alex fists her hands across her bag straps, her eyes flit to the alien, glaring. "She's ruining everything."

"Alex, you're lashing out, its understandable after such a drastic change, but she has to face changes as well. Did you forget that?" Alex glares at the floor, swallowing. "Both of your lives have changed, you aren't the only one this is affecting." The bell rings loud and shrill and Kara jerks full body, marker thrown across the room to break into pieces. Alex glares at her and Miss Gilwood smiles gently. "Keep the headphones Kara, they may help."

Kara looks down, murmuring softly in kryptonian. Both Alex and the teacher catch the soft easy way they fall form her lips before she speaks louder in English, still stilted and pronounced slightly dipping and strange. Deeply accented. "Thank you."

They head outside, Kara flinching back from all the noises and she reaches for the headphone, Alex gives her a weird look and Kara tightens her hands on them but doesn't put them on. The smells outside clog her nose and she fights to filter everything out. There are so many noises around her and before she knows it Alex is dragging her to the beach. She ask gently in kryptonian where they're going but the alpha glares at her and Kara flinches back at her bare ears. Kara was voiceless in this strange environment.

Bird screech loudly and Kara watches them curiously, zooming in unintentionally on their wing. She follows them with wide eyes and awe. The waves drown out all the other voices until Alex is right in front of her. "Will you stop, you're being weird. People are noticing."

Kara duck her chin, murmuring in Kryptonian before she can stop herself. Alex huffs, shaking her head before Kara can make out the screech of an automobile and the wail of a baby. She takes off running after them, sprinting fast, Alex screaming her name with confusion and anger. Kara launches herself over the car, ripping the door off and throwing the barely conscious woman out. She hits the floor with a grunt, rolling and Kara blinks in concern, looking ta her hands to the baby in the back before she rips the seat-belt off and gently cradles the baby in her arms. She jumps from the car, passing him to his mother and smiling softly at the woman's gratitude.

Alex comes bounding up the hill, panting, followed by the others at the party. "KARA?" Her voice is shrill with confusion, worry and anger all in one.

Before Kara can answer the car explode, Kara covers the mother and the baby with her body but the door goes flying toward Alex. "ALEX!"

Kara races towards the girl, followed by Alex's friends. Alex is cradling her arm and her friends are hovering in worry. Someone calls her parents and the police show up right as the Danvers get there. Eliza grabs Alex, rushing her to the hospital while Jeremiah takes Kara home.

Kara sits outside, staring at the sky with slumped shoulders. Jeremiah comes out. "Alex just had to get a few stitches and a cast." Kara slumps her shoulders in relief as the words filter through the translator. He leans forward sighing. "There's a reason you can't use you're power, people are asking questions. I told them it was luck. We can only use that excuse once before people begin to wonder. Your cousin wanted you to have a normal life." He pulls out glasses. "I once taught him how to handle his power, these glasses should help. They'll dull your vision and hearing. Take the edge off."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome Kara, but I need you to do something." She nods. "I need you to live as normal a life as you can. We already have a Superman, you don't need to expose yourself. You don't need to be a hero, all you need to be is Kara Danvers."

* * *

* * *

The first month of summer passes quickly. Kara stays in her room, reading over English books with a furrowed brow and listening to anything she can get her hands on. Her kryptonian brain picks up on the language easily but it is difficult to speak. The words are harsher, less musical than Kryptonian. Eliza teaches a summer class and is only home at nights, while Jeremiah works whenever he can from his office downstairs. Alex is always running between his office or the beach. Hanging out with her friends. Kara doesn't join them and Eliza had stopped pushing when Kara had shook her head at the stilted invitation from the young human. Jeremiah had gotten into the habit of leaving Kara at the house alone for an hour or two while he drove to his research office in town to gather supplies.She still has nightmares, still clings to the shirt she had worn when she crashed into the earth. The smell of her mother is almost gone. 

The night is quiet but the air thick as Kara watches a documentary, the English words stilted more than Alex's. Kara trembles, the hair on her arm standing on end and then there is a flash of light and a sudden boom. The house shakes and Kara lets out a soundless screams. She scrambles under her bed, pressing against the wall as the lights go out in the house. Jeremiah was called into the lab for an emergency, telling Kara he'd be back soon and Eliza had a meeting with one of her students so neither were here to comfort the young kryptonian. Hands cradled over her ears Kara rocks back and forth as she lays under the bed. The sound strikes again, light flashing outside the house and a roar rumbling through the air. Kara's chest stills and she closes her eyes tighter, pressing her hands over her ears.

There is a light flickering and Kara presses herself closer to the wall, stilling completely and waiting for the roar to try and break her eardrums again. "Kara?" Alex's voice is confused and the light flickers around the room again, a pink thing against Kara's tightly squeezed eyelids. She waits for the roar. There is a flash of light again and the roar is closer, longer than before. "Kara?!" Alex's voice is higher pitched, worry thick in it. The roar sounds again and Kara whimpers, pulling her legs tighter to her chest. "Kara?" Alex leans down, almost tripping over a book torn apart and scattered across the floor as she moves the blanket from the edge of the bed and shines the flashlight under it. She can barely make out the alien's shaking form. "Kara? What are you doing?"

Kara keeps her hands over her ears and her eyes tightly shut, her limbs tremble and Alex stares at her. "Are you afraid of thunderstorms?" The lightning strikes and a few seconds later thunder rumbles the house, Alex sighs softly. "We haven't had one in a while, they're normal Kara, you can come out. It won't hurt you."

Rain pelts the house and all Kara can hear is the rumble of her planet as it exploded, the flash of light as her entire culture died. It strikes again and tears fall down her cheek. Alex watches her, reaching for the home phone but there's no power. She lets out a huff, looking over the girl before sliding under the bed. "I can't believe i'm doing this." She slides until she is almost touching the alien. "Hey, look at me." The younger girl does nothing, continues to shake like she hadn't heard the alpha at all. "Kara!" Alex's voice is sharp and she touches the alien's shoulder softly. Watery blue eyes open and Kara stares at Alex, full of fear and pain. "Where's the headphones?" Kara continues to shake like a leaf and Alex huffs scooting closer. "Dad said you had super hearing, so how about you focus on something else other than the thunder."

Kara shakes. "Wha-What?"

Alex is on her stomach, halfway under the bed, glasses sliding down her nose and hair a mess from the salt she'd yet to wash out of it. "Focus on something beside the thunder."

"Can't." Kara whimpers.

"You either focus on something or hide under the bed crying because you can't."

Kara closes her eyes, she can't find the normal hum of electricity and her chin trembles. The house was empty and there was too much noise outside. A soft whimper leaves her throat. _"There's nothing but the roar."_

Alex sighs, she'd picked up a few kryptonian words barely enough to understand a third of Kara's sentence, but she can read the tremble in her body and the tears falling down her face. "Focus on me then. At least until the power comes back on." Alex shuffles even farther under the bed, until she's scant inches from the other girl.

Kara closes her eyes and listens. Alex's breathing is quiet but her heart is loud, it beats blood steadily and pumps even slower with each steady inhale of the human. Kara stops trembling and her limbs relax as she focuses only on the beating heart of the human beside her. Her own heart beat slows and she calms, going still. She doesn't hear the words Alex says but when her heart quickens Kara opens her eyes to look around. "I thought you were dead. You stopped breathing." Alex's voice is pitched high but the translator doesn't give the same panic, monotone as it is.

Kara blinks up at her, murmuring in English. "Focused."

Alex relaxes, heart slowing and Kara focuses on it again. "Okay." Her hands loosen on the flashlight and she shifts her knees into a more comfortable position, watching Kara relax, the fear leaving her face. Her body is slack for once, no tension to it. It's there first time Alex has seen her calm. Something aches inside Alex's chest but she ignores it.

They lay like that for a long while. Kara in an almost trance-like state and Alex, eyes half lidded as she rest somewhere between sleep and being awake.

The front door slams open but Kara doesn't even flinch, Alex's eyes flutter and then there the yell of her mother. "Alex? Kara?"

Alex sighs, blinking her eyes and shifting her shoulders. "Up here mom!"

The woman comes up the stairs quickly and enters Kara's room. She can make out Alex's boots under the bed so she kneels down, lifts up the blanket to see her daughter, lying on her stomach before Eliza looks at the slumbering form of the alien. "What are you doing?"

"The thunder scared her, she hid under here til I got to her." Alex shrugs as best she can with the bed a few centimeters above her head. "She focused on me until she fell asleep. Every-time I moved she'd freak out."

Eliza sighs. "I was worried she would freak out during the storm but I was stuck at the school due to flooding." She reaches for Alex's face, smoothing a finger down from her brow to her cheek then cradling her chin despite the way it pulls at her old shoulders. "I'm proud of you."

Alex swallows, nodding her head before she shifts, rolling out from under the bed. Kara wakes quickly, zeroing in on Alex's too quick heart now. "What?"

Eliza smiles at her. "The storms over sweetie."

"Oh." Blue eyes find Alex's. "Thank you."

"Whatever, I just sat under the bed." Alex gruffly mumble, kissing her mother's cheek. "Night mom, love you."

Eliza sighs, looking between the two girls before hugging Alex's shoulder. "Goodnight Alex, I love you too." The young alpha escapes from the room and clomps over to her own. "Are you alright Kara?"

The young girl nods, crawling out from under the bed and slipping under the covers, Eliza leaves with a soft hand pressed to the crown of her head. Kara focuses on the quick heart of Alex, listening as it slows with sleep. It is a steady thump that lulls Kara back to sleep.

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

Kara rest on the roof, letting the sun heat her skin. She's at the very top of the house, the very highest point of the roof with an English grammar book and audio book in her hand, the translator in her ear. She lets the sun strengthen her skin and chase away the cold chill from last night. Her hair has grown lighter the longer she spent in the sun. Her skin darkening slightly. Her bare feet tap a rhythm against the roof, careful not to put another hole in it and she looks down at the letter Kal-El had sent her. A mix between English and Kryptonian. His writing is as atrocious as his speaking but her English is worse than his kryptonian so she can't really judge him.

He wrote briefly on her powers to come and she trembles at the thought. Flight, super-strength, super-speed, heat vision. She doesn't want any of that. The flight would be nice but it had yet to come and she feared what would happen if she received all of her powers, the damages she could cause with them. She already causes enough with her super strength.

There is laughter from the ground and Kara listens quietly as Alex and her friends stumble into the house, smelling of sea and sweat. "Where's the foster kid at?" It's Alex's friend, the boy with the too loud heart. His voice scratchy as his vocal cords change with maturity.

Kara can hear Alex's heart, there's a barely there skip before it settles again. "Somewhere, I don't know."

"Your parents haven't forced you to hang out with her again?" There's something in his voice that sets her on edge, that forces her feet to still and her ears to hone in on them.

"No." Alex's voice is terse, not quite the steel it can be, but it's getting there. "She's still working on her English."

The boy doesn't seem to hear the edge to Alex's voice, plowing on with his scratching voice that deepens in short spurts and a heart that thunders too loud. "Where's she from?"

"The edge of Alaska or something like that. She was the daughter of dad's friend who worked with the locals." Alex gives as little information as she can, but she sticks to the story her parents gave her.

"She doesn't speak English?" He presses, and Kara wraps her arms around herself. She could look through the house if she focused, if she wanted too, but all that would show her was what her hearing was. Alex's hands tight on a water bottle and the boy riffling through the fridge and the other alpha, the girl, is typing away on a small electronic device. A phone. Humans are so far behind in technology than Krypton.

Alex parrots the story her parents had given everyone, something that keeps Kara American, but explains her differences. "She speaks some, but they have native languages down there."

"Do you understand what she says?"  It's the girl this time, voice smooth and curious, she's calm where Alex isn't and quiet where the boy is too loud.

Alex shrugs, gulping at her water bottle. "Not most of the time."

The boy grunts as he jumps up on the counter, Kara can hear the creak in the stone. "She's an omega right?"

Alex's heart does that thing again, a skip before it plows forward, so much like the girl herself. "Yeah, so?" There's that steel edge to her voice, finally audible to the boy and full of warning.

"So i'm an _alpha,_ curiosity sake Alex." He laughs, loud and threatening. "Haven't seen her much except that one day at school and she was _freaky_ that day. But she smelt okay if a little weird."

"Fuck off Damien." Kara can hear Alex shove the boy's shoulder, hears the creak of the counter under his weight and the bite to Alex's voice. "Anyway we got food, lets go back to the beach."

"You gonna invite the Alaskan born with us?" There's something in his tone that makes the hair on Kara's neck stand up, Alex's heart quickens like she hears it too.

"She probably went with my mom to work." That warning is there again, heavy and thick with something that Kara can't place.

"Fine." He sniffs the air again, Kara can hear the rasp of it though his lungs. She can hear the thump of his heart. Too large and slow to be Alex's. "Shame." He lurches off the counter and Alex's hands loosen from the water bottle and her blood slows from it's heavy pumping. Kara's shoulders slump when she hears them finally make it back to the beach.

Kara spends the rest of the day on the roof, refusing to go in the house for fear that Alex would bring the alpha boy back. Her heart thundered in terror. Krypton had stories of alphas from other species. Horror stories that she'd read on her Aunt's data pad, one that she was not meant to have access to. The boy just confirmed all of her fears, fears that Eliza's soft words and Alex's steady heart had soothed.

Jeremiah comes up from his lab a few hours later, calling for her. She slips her headphones on and ignores him as much as she can. She can still hear his shout like a normal person would but it no longer slams into her ears. His voice softens when he finds her, he doesn't climb on the roof. He lets her stay up there while he sits in a lawn chair and reads quietly. His eyes checking on her once in a while. She ignores him as best she can, reading and listening to the book. Translating it in kyrptonian with her translator.

The sun dips lower in the sky and Jeremiah stands to greet Alex, the young alpha's friends in tow. Kara peels off one side to listen to them more intently.

"Can Damien and Alison stay for dinner?" Alex's voice is not pleading but curious and wanting. There is still a hint of aggression to her stance, keeping Damien in her line of sight, but there is no hostility toward her friend like there was in the house hours ago.

Jeremiah catches Kara stiffen out of the corner of his eye. "I'm heading out to the diner right now, they can tag along if they want."

Alison smiles gently. "Are you sure Dr. Danvers?"

"Yes, it'll be fine Alison." He grins at them. "It was just going to be me and Alex anyways. Kara's with Eliza."

Damien's shoulders slump and Alex glares at the boy but the teenagers pile into the car and Jeremiah looks up from locking the front door, murmuring softly. "Are you fine with this?" Kara nods sharply. "Eliza will be home soon." Kara stiffens and Jeremiah furrows his brow. "Do you want to come with?" She shakes her head. "I'll be back, okay?" She nods sharply and he sighs walking around the house, climbing into the car and driving away after sending a message to Eliza.

The two pass one another on the lone road to their house and Alex furrows her brow when she spots the empty passenger seat in her mother's car. Damien and Alison don't notice, too focused on arguing over a radio channel.

Kara hides on the roof when Eliza comes home. The blonde begins to cook dinner but doesn't call Kara down. She doesn't come up either and Kara relaxes. The sun falls down below the horizon and dinner is done but Kara can't force herself to go down and sit alone with the woman. She aches for Jeremiah's familiar safe smell. But most of all she longs for her mother's and father's soothing scents despite knowing she won't get them. That she can never have them again.

Removing her glasses she stares at the sky, she squints and can barely make out where Krypton once was, can see Rao in all his glory. Her hands trembles and she clutches at the roof. A tile rips off in her hand so she folds her arms over her stomach, letting them dig into her skin with enough force to bruise. Tears of grief prick at her eyes and they fall. She was alone in this strange world, left by a cousin she was meant to protect, surrounded by a culture she could not understand.

She can hear a familiar heartbeat minutes later and then the slam of a car door a few miles away, can hear Alison murmur a farewell to the Danvers. A few seconds later she can focus and hear Alex's voice in the car still so far from their house. "Kara wasn't with mom." Alex is curious yet suspicious.

"No." Jeremiah's voice is as soothing as it usually is.

"Where was she?" And Alex is as demanding as she can get, as demanding as she ever is.

Jeremiah lets out a soft sigh, Kara can hear it rasp through his lungs. "She's fine."

That doesn't answers Alex's question so she pushes. "Where is she?"

There the soft sound of a hand tightening on the steering wheel as Jeremiah murmurs. "She's at home right now."

 "Why'd you lie then?" Alex demands. 

The air empties from his lungs like it was a burden to keep his lung inflated. "Kara did not want to come with us."

Kara can hear Alex scoff. "So?"

"So she stayed home and waited for your mom." Jeremiah refrains from snapping out in agitation, but only because Alex doesn't understand. Because Alex didn't mean to make Kara uncomfortable. It makes Alex stiffen like her mother's harsh judgment and orders do, they're her parents but any reprimand from them always sets her on edge, and she'd been tested the boundaries since Kara had landed.

There is a tense silence for the scant few minutes it takes them to drive home from Alison's house and then the car wheels on the drive way. Jeremiah stops in front of the house, at the edge of the porch. "Did you have dinner Kara?"

Kara gathers her things, slipping to the edge of the roof and then dropping. Alex jerks back from the younger girl in shock as the dust flutters around them. Kara ducks her head, sticking close to Jeremiah's side and giving Alex a wide berth. "No."

Jeremiah softens, doesn't reach for her but presses out soothing pheromones that relax both Alex and Kara's shoulders. "Are you hungry?"

Kara won't look at either of them. "No."

Alex shakes her head, looking confused and worried, then irritated at her confusion and worry. A mess of teenage emotions. Her confusion, worry then agitation fill the air and Jeremiah looks to his daughter. "Can you go inside Alex?"

"Why?" The word is as sharp as a knife, pressing, always pressing.

He lets out a soft noise. "Please."

"Fine." She looks back at the two omegas, the hunched shoulders of the brunette slowly turning blonde and her father before turning around and heading into the house.

Jeremiah stares at the young alien after Alex closes the front door. "What happened today?"

Kara shrugs, head still turned down. Afraid to be anything but what Earth expects of her. "Nothing."

"Kara." Jeremiah presses gently. "Something happened."

Kara looks up at her concerned face quickly before pushing her eye back to look at the ground, at the small divot her drop from the roof had left in the ground. "Alex's friends are alphas."

Jeremiah's face darkens and he itches to step closer to her, to press a hand to her shoulder and offer support. "Did they try anything?" There's something deadly in his voice, something she had never heard from him before but reminds her of her mother when Astra had arrived home from a war, bloodied and battle-torn. Her mother had threatened to cross galaxies and bring those that hurt her twin to their knees.

Kara shakes her head. "No. But the boy kept asking where I was and if I was an omega." Blue eyes water and her shoulders shake, before long her entire body is trembling. "I don't want to be an omega on Earth Jeremiah." Her voice cracks. "Alpha's are monstrous here."

He opens his arms and she falls into them without hesitation, arm tightening around his waist. "You know that's not all true Kara." His hand soothes through her hair as he presses out as many soothing pheromones as he can. "Alpha's aren't all monsters. You are not defined by your type."

"Yes you are, _you told me that the first day I was here."_ She switches from English to Kryptonian easily and his translator filters it quick enough. _"I'm omega, I don't get the jobs I would have got on Krypton. Social standing for alpha's are higher here."_ She trembles more violently than before. _"I've heard horror stories about the alphas of the galaxies and I didn't believe them until today."_

His arms tighten around her, letting her head press into his broad chest. "Why's that?"

" _Alex and Eliza are nice, nothing like the stories, but the boy today."_ Jeremiah can feel her jaw shake when she pulls in a breath, when she finds her words through her fears _. "He kept sniffing the air and asking about me and I was scared."_ He holds her as tight as he can, hoping her kryptonian body can feel the hug, hoping he can provide the comfort he aches to give the young alien.

* * *

* * *

* * *

Kara climbs into her bed, electing not to say goodnight to Eliza nor Alex when she and Jeremiah head inside.

"Did you find out what was wrong?" Eliza's washing the dishes from her lone dinner with a rag, suds climbing up her wrists as Jeremiah stands beside her. Alex tilts her head and listens intently from the stairs, hidden by the shadows. Wanting to figure out what happened today.

Jeremiah leans his shoulder into Eliza's. "One of Alex's friends was sniffing around and asking about Kara."

The plate creaks in Eliza's hand, threatening to break. "Did he try anything?"

"No, Kara was on the roof the entire time." There's relief in his tone, in the way his body slumps into his wife's, his mate's form. "Just heard him talking." Alex stiffens from where she listens in the hallway at this news, at the reason her father had been quick to get her and her friends away from the house. "She was terrified. Alpha's are the monster of their nightmares on Krypton."

Eliza's shoulders slump and she lets the rag fall into the hot sudsy water. "She didn't want to be alone with me, that's why she didn't come down for dinner." There's something like defeat and self hatred in her voice.

Jeremiah presses soothing hands to Eliza's shoulder, unknown to them Alex continues to listen. "She'll come around, she just gets nervous some days. It'll be fine."

"Is she afraid of Alex?" There's something in Eliza's voice, cautious yet conflicted. Alex's chest contracts at the thought of Kara fearing her. 

"I think the thought of any alpha scares her." He turns the water back on, rinsing what Eliza had scrubbed, allowing Eliza to gather herself. "They didn't have them on Krypton, it's a different experience for her."

"Alex already stays as far away from her as she can." Eliza rubs at her face, rubs at it like she can chase away the pinch of a headache. "I'll keep my distance until she calms again."

Jeremiah shakes his head. "No, just be normal." Alex's hands are tight on the banister to the stairs, white knuckled and guilty. "She'll be jumpy for a while but she'll think she did something wrong if you keep your distance."

"I don't want that boy around again." There's a deep growl to Eliza's voice, heady with a deadly intent. As protective as a mother over a wounded child.

Jeremiah nods his agreement, having already decided that. "I'll have a talk with Alex."

Eliza lets out a sound of confusion. "You?"

He lets out a soft laugh, pressing a kiss to Eliza's cheek. "Sweetheart, you're a bit too authoritative and demanding. You alphas butt heads too much."

Eliza lets out a breath, pressing her face into his shoulder and neck. "I just want Kara to feel safe."

Jeremiah slumps into her, lets her take all the weight she can as they support one another. "She can feel safe without alienating our daughter. Let Alex do as she pleases, she'll come around."

"She hates Kara." Eliza grumbles into his skin.

"She resents her right now." They both hope they are doing right by their daughter and the lost girl they took in, hoping that they won't mess up. "Everything will come around."

She lets out a soft sound of amusement. "If you say so."

He presses his cheek into her temple. "Trust me, everything will be fine."

Eliza nuzzles his neck and chin. "I love you Jeremiah."

"And I you Eliza." He pulls back and kisses her soundly, Alex wrinkles her nose in the hallway, debating on running back up to her room now that the conversation is over. "How about we leave the dishes for tomorrow, i'm exhausted."

Eliza laughs quietly, careful not to wake the slumber girls upstairs. "What did you do today, sit around the lab?"

He pinches her side, causing her to jerk away from the ministration that tickles her sides. He grins at her as he pulls the plug to the sink. "I'll have you know I did an experiment today, one i'm hoping Alex will be interested in." Alex freezes on her climb up, curious as ever.

She grabs a dish towel to dry her hands. "What is it?"

His eyes spark and he leans back against the counter. "It involves biology and creating a self healing skin."

"Isn't that more my forte than yours?" She grins at him, flicking at him with the towel.

He catches the edge of the towel, pulling gently on it. Eliza comes with it, eyebrow raised. "My beautiful bio-engineer mate gave me the idea. It was the paper you did a few years ago, I was going to let you know about it as a surprise."

She lets out a snort, tugging on the towel to pull him to her. "Surprise."

"Yes, and now I've spoiled it." He sighs out, letting Eliza gently pull the edge of the towel from his fingers. "But I believe both you and your daughter will love it."

She pokes at his stomach, he grunts and grins at her. "How have you gotten it to heal itself my dear husband?"

"I'm working on that." He grins. "It takes too long right now. I've bonded the cells together with nanos and chemicals."

She lets her hand press into his chest, feel the beat of his heart. "Health hazard?"

"That what I have you and Alex for." He wraps his arms around his mate, nuzzling into her neck. "I'm thinking about having her intern under me if she wants."

Eliza closes her eyes and lets out a content sigh into her mate's chest. "She was always a science nerd like her parents."

Alex creeps back up the stairs, there's guilt heavy in her stomach. Heavy enough that she doesn't even feel joy at her father's words. At the fact that she can intern under him. She trudges quietly up the stairs, stops to stare at Kara's door for a few seconds before she forces herself to her own room. She falls into her bed with a sigh, pressing her face into her pillow.

* * *

* * *

 Month two of the summer passed fast enough, Kara's English was getting better and her hair growing lighter and lighter under the yellow sun. She spent most of her time up on the roof, studying and sun bathing. Some days she would creep down and do math with Eliza. The woman was a bio-engineer, she had enough math books in her office for Kara to read and filter though for the fun of it. Some days Kara would compare human and kryptonian anatomy, the alpha speaking softy while grading papers.

This day both adults were gone, leaving Kara with a clunky cell phone and Alex having already run to the beach. Kara drops down from the roof and walks to the kitchen, her sound canceling headphones are on, keeping out the construction going on a few miles away. Her lead glasses help dampen the few other loud noises that slip through. Kara hums under her breath as she grabs at food and a glass of water. She turns when she hears a voice through the headphones, pulling them down to rest around her neck she looks up in shock to see three figures coming through the front door. Alex's face is twisted in a furious expression. "Damien, I said we couldn't go to my house."

"Yours is closer and i'm not running to mine just to eat." He walks in the house like he owns it and grins when he spots Kara. "Hey, you must be Cara right?" His eyes sweep over her and his grin widens. Kara's hand tightens around her sandwich.

Alison stiffens and grumbles at the boy as Alex shoves past Damien. "We're just grabbing food Kara, we'll leave in a minute." The alpha tilts her chin to the stairs and Kara grabs her book, backing away to run up the stairs.

Damien laughs, sweeping his dark hair from his forehead with a flick of his head stepping in front of her to stop her from leaving. "Naw, we can stay for a bit, after all you're not suppose to swim after eating."

Alex moves to stand between Damien and Kara, shoulders tense. "We weren't swimming Damien, we were playing volleyball."

"Both involve water. We can stay, right Danvers?" He stands at his full height and Alison steps away from them, shaking her head and coming to stand at the opposite side of the kitchen as Kara, the two alphas between them.

There's a soft rumble in Alex's chest that only Kara can hear. "I said we're leaving."

Damien bares his teeth. "Where's the hospitality?"

Alex's jaw is tight with controlled anger. "My parents have rules, if they're not home no alphas can be here."

He steps closer, tilting his head as he grins all wide and bare teeth at Alex. "They scared we'll corrupt the pretty little omega."

Kara's translator crackling in her ear with each word and her chest is still with fear. Alison speaks up, lips pursed in annoyance. "How about we just go, we were having fun."

Damien lets out a scoffs. "We were having fun until Alex decided to get her panties in a twist."

Alex bares her own teeth at him, chest rumbling more. "Fuck off Damien."

He grins wide and full, taunting like Alex had given him ammunition. "Maybe I will." He takes a step towards Kara and Alex chest erupts into a loud roar like rumble as his hand reaches for Kara's wrist. The alien jerks back against the wall, putting distance between her and Damien.

Alex slams into him with all the force her short body can manage and Alison lets out a defeated sigh from where she leans against the wall. Damien grunts under the tackle, throwing Alex away from him. Kara trembles in the corner, this was what alphas reduced down to. What she was warned about. Creatures fighting like animals. Alex slams her fist into Damien's face as he stands and he knees her in the stomach, his weight and height greater than hers. Alex lets out a grunt and headbutts him with everything she has. Blood spurts over the floor as his nose breaks and they are suddenly a scramble of limbs and rumbling chests. Kara grabs for the phone but Alison shakes her head. "Alex'll win and I'll drag Damien away."

Kara's eyes are wide with fear. "I don't want to be alone."

Alison meets her gaze, tilts her head to the side. "You're scared of alphas?" Kara jerkily tilts her chin to the bloodied fight that moved to the living room. There's a crash of something falling and grunts of pain and anger. "It happens all the time, people fight." Alison eyes her again. "You didn't grow up around alphas did you?" Kara shakes her head and the small alpha sighs. "It'll be fine."

There is a scream of anger and flesh hitting flesh in the other room and Kara jerks. "Alex just kicked his ass, I gotta drag him out of here." Alison smiles at her, dark skin crinkling gently. "It'll be fine."

Alison drags Alex off the boy with strong hands and laughter. "You kicked his ass good, let him leave with some dignity Alex." The brunette growls low in her throat and Alison heaves Damien to his feet, dragging the bleeding boy from the house. "You and I are still on for surfing then mani-pedi's tomorrow don't forget." Alison pauses at the doorway. "If you're not grounded that is. Let me know. Bye Rocky, Bye Blondie." The door slams shut behind them and Kara stands there trembling.

Alex looks up at her, her young face split open and bloodied, dark eyes search Kara's face. "You okay?" Kara swallows and nods sharply. Alex winces as she pulls in a breath through her nose. "I'm gonna go patch myself up."

"You need a doctor." Kara's words are quiet but they're the first complete English she had spoken to Alex.

Alex shrugs her shoulder, but winces as it twinges painfully. "I'll be fine."

Kara sighs, narrowing her eyes, looking over the alpha. "Three broken ribs. A fracture nose. Many lacerations." Kara looks up sternly. "You need a doctor."

"He got off worse than I did." Alex grunts out as she takes a towel from Kara to stem her bleeding head.

Kara looks in the living room with tense shoulders. "You broke the coffee table."

Alex stiffens. "I did it to keep him from you." Kara ducks her head and Alex adverts her gaze guiltily. "Whatever, mom'll ground me anyway because he came here."

Kara furrows her brow. "He forced his way in."

"Doesn't matter." Alex pauses. "You call her?"

Kara shifts her feet then shakes her head. "No."

Alex reaches into her back pocket to pull out her phone and groans when she finds it busted. "Wanna call her?"

Kara sends a quick text asking her to come home. Twenty minutes later Eliza comes storming into the house like a hurricane. Her eyes catch Alex's busted face and the dried blood around it, she stiffens nostrils flaring. "What happened?"

"Damien forced his way in, Alex protected me from him." Kara speaks gently, all quietly tiling airy voice.

Eliza looks over the omega and finds no wound, that dark look is still in her eyes. "How bad Alex?"

Alex swallows but tilts her chin up to meet her mother's gaze. "He's worse than I am."

There's slight pride in Eliza's eyes as she looks over her daughter. "I'm proud of you, you did good. Men, alphas, like him are stains to society." Her fingers brush the cut on Alex's forehead before she turns to the blonde. "Kara are you okay?"

Kara nods stiffly. "Alex has three broken ribs and a fractured nose."

Eliza sighs, rubbing her hand through her hair "You're father's the one with the first aid training."

"Here breathing is labored. It hisses." Kara's face is twisted in fear.

Eliza's lips twitch mirthlessly and she itches to sooth the fear that flashes across Kara's face and the pain that has settled across Alex's. "Comes with broken ribs unfortunately."

They head to the hospital, Kara sticking close to their side. A nurse spots Alex pressing the towel to her head as Eliza fills out papers and shakes her head as she walks over to the two teenagers. "You the one that sent the boy in here?" Alex stiffens and her eyes flicker to Kara and then the nurse. The nurse takes in a quick breath, catching the omega's scent before letting out a sigh. "Makes sense. Come on i'll get you in, your mom's finishing insurance papers." Kara shifts nervously, Eliza was by the ringing phone and there were so many strangers here. The nurse smiles soothingly at her. "You can come too sweetie." The woman is an omega, everything about her calming so Kara follows after her meekly.

Alex grunts as they close the curtain, separating her from Kara's eyes. "No peeking." Alex grumbles out.

Kara lets out a choked laugh and turns the other direction. The nurse laughs at the two of them. "The curtains are closed sweetie, you don't need to turn around."

Alex advert her gaze from the nurses and shifts in the stupid gown they had her in. The nurse clicks her teeth as she surveys the damage. "Not as bad as the boy." Alex's eyes flash and the nurse laughs. "That alpha pride. You could have killed him sweetie."

Alex stiffens. "He was being an ass."

"Being an ass doesn't mean you should beat him senseless."

"He was already senseless." Alex grumbles out.

The nurse leans close, whispering, not knowing that Kara can hear everything she's saying. "She okay right? He didn't hurt her?" Alex eyes flash and her teeth bare. "Good." The nurse pats Alex's shoulder. "You did good Alex."

Kara listens to the steady heartbeat of Alex, still even and strong despite the fight and injuries. Her breath still hisses like it'll be her last, but her heart is steady and it calms Kara's worry and fear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I ended this before we even hit canon time (i.e Season 1). I am going to touch on pieces from season one as well as more from before Kara became Supergirl. 
> 
> (This means more parts to this Universe. Though I have a list of chapters i'm going to finish/write and the second part to this is below some other. So much for one-shots only lol, half of these chapters are multi). 
> 
> There was something nagging at me to get this piece out after sitting in my drafts for two years, so I posted what I had completed already. Thank you all for reading:)


	7. Omegaverse: Red Kryptonite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Kara infected with red kryptonite is exactly what the warrior omegas on Krypton were meant to be; dominating attention, unforgiving and relentless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a short drabble, the shortest thing I've ever written.
> 
> Omega/ABO universe. This could be seen as a stand alone or as a future part to Chapter 6: Society's Expectations (Omegaverse).

Kara stalks around the room, imposing in a way Alex had never seen her. She walked like Astra had, like she could force the populous to their knees by her stance alone. Like she was a god among mere mortals. "I'm everything you tried to change. I am _finally_ free to be what I was meant to. Everything you tried to suppress."

Alex shakes her head, staring at a Kara who looks back at her with something like loathing. It breaks something in Alex's chest, that Kara could look at her like that. "Kara it was never like that."

"Yes it was." Kara sneers, eyes harder than Alex had ever seen them before. "Alex the  _alpha._  Strong and everything society expected of you. But me, I could never truly be who I was meant to be. I was stuck as Earth's omega, not as Krypton's." Kara's voice drops low, heavy and sneering. "Do you want to know how hard that was? To have to hunch my shoulders? To be  _submissive!"_

"Kara." Alex chokes out.

"No." Kara grabs Alex by her shoulders, fingers tightening in a bruising vice as she jerks the alpha closer. Alex doesn't fight it as Kara glares at her. "You can't _imagine_ it." Kara's veins brighten around her eyes, red and dangerous. "You can't imagine the things that haunt my nightmares. Krypton gone and every thing I know _broken._ Your society is backwards and they shoved me into the background, they forced me to cave and submit."

Alex doesn't jerk out of her hold, but she's not limp either. Hazel eyes cloud with shame and tears. "Kar."

"No, you don't get to look that way." Kara snarls, fingers tightening nearly to the point of breaking Alex's fragile bones. "You don't get to be sorry."

Alex's lips tremble and her eyes are impossibly wide with shame, guilt, self-loathing and most of all, love. "I am."

Kara's face twists and her breaths come in harsh, like she can't get enough oxygen. "You're suppose to fight back! You're suppose to want me to submit!" Kara looms over her, breathe hot against Alex's face and she sneers out. "Where's your alpha now Alex? I know you want to. I've known since my first heat."

Alex stares at her with bleary eyes full of tears before she turns her head to the side, showing her throat to Kara. "I _never_ want to force you to do anything you don't want Kara."

Kara stills, a war within her body. Veins dancing red around her eyes slowly disperse and chest stutters as Alex keeps her throat bared, waiting. "What're you doing?" There something thick in Kara's voice as Alex submits. It's heady, dark. Dangerous. "Fight back, you're suppose to fight back." 

Alex looks up through her lashes, slumped against the wall, Kara's hands still tight on her shoulders. "I could never fight you." Hazel eyes peak at the Kryptonian. "I'm tired of fighting it."

Kara shudders, nostrils flaring and she stares at the veins pulsing steadily in Alex's throat. Stares at the spot where her scent glands reside. Kara steps impossibly closer, kryptonian warmth against Alex's front. Fingers trail from Alex's shoulders, releasing their steely grip. One down to her hip and the other to slip around the side of Alex's throat, Kara's thumb stopping over where her scent glands are. Alex's eyes nearly flutter shut but she keeps them on Kara, head still tilted to the side. "I could do whatever I want with you right now." Kara's voice is a low purr, yet there's a crack in it.

Alex lets her muscles loosen and she tilts her throat into Kara's hand even more. "I'd let you." And her voice is choked, so many emotions caught in that admission.

Kara presses closer even more, Alex's back connecting with the wall. Kara dips her nose to where her thumb once was, nosing the side of Alex's neck and breathing in the thick pheromones that reside there. "You're mine."

Alex heart aches and she shudders in Kara's hold. "I've always been yours."


	8. Space Pirates AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even when they're not Supergirl and Agent Danvers they orbit around one another.
> 
> Or a Space Pirate AU where Kara and Alex fight to stay together, Alex defects from Naval Space Fleet of Terran in order to protect Kara, essentially becoming pirates.

"Commander Danvers." Alex looks up from her lab work at the man in front of her, his dark hair is cut perfectly to his head, not a hair out of place, while her long auburn hair is pulled tight into a standard bun.

"Colonel Harper." Alex stands at attention quickly, eyeing the man curiously as she looks to the window of the lab. "We're docking at Horizon?"

He stares at the screen in front of Alex, hands tight on the back of a chair. "Yes, there have been complications there. An uprising."

Alex's heart races but she keeps her face impassive as she sets her results down slowly. "Will force be necessary?"

"Possibly." He scowls, hands bruising against the back of the chair as he huffs out. "We'll calm the masses down and put down any prisoners that won't cooperate."

Alex nods, putting the rest of her supplies away then falling into her military stance like they had drilled into them at the academy. "And the ones in our hold?"

He lets out a low dissatisfied hum. "Transported to another more secure facility. Horizon is too rudimentary for _their_ kind."

"Of course sir." Alex keeps the perfect soldier stance, it's how she's gotten as far as she had. Holding her tongue and bidding her time while coasting along the middle of the pack. It's why no one suspected her of hating her job. "Would you like me to wake the rest of the soldiers?"

* * *

* * *

 

Alex leads her team of six to the Horizon facilities, with a steady hand she draws Kara's house sigil on the right breast of her tactical suit with the bright marker in her pocket. Her men are behind her so they don't see it as she leads their way into the fray. Aliens from all corners of the galaxies move around them, loud and dangerous, but most of all, they're free from their holding cells. Alex fire lethal shots at any that get to close while her men follow her lead. When they hit a corridor Alex lets out a shaky sigh before rushing towards a rather grotesque alien. It stares at her before grinning widely and catching her by her sides, squeezing before it's attention moves to her squad of six. it throws her easily across the room and Alex twists as best she can so she slams her helmet into the ground. It hits hard enough to make her head swim, cause sparks from the camera to scatter and send the sensors of her suit yelling at her. W

With her camera down she ignores Colonel Harper calling over her com for a status report as she moves to take out the six soldiers in her unit. Three fall to head shots they never saw coming, disruptor forcing their shields down before the bullets tear through their helmet. The other three catch on quickly that Alex is no longer firing at the aliens. An alien takes out the largest of the human soldiers, hand bursting through Lieutenant Jason's chest. Alex fires at the other two until they fall, dead, their shields destroyed by the illegal home-made disruptor she had made specifically for this purpose. The aliens look to her and she crosses her right fist over her heart. It pushes the brightness of the House of El sigil forward and the aliens grin, wide and excited like Alex is their leader. Like Alex will lead them all in their vengeance.

Alex leads a march of aliens who believe her to be an ally down the hallway where she comes upon a woman, dark wavy hair separated by a single white streak in it. The woman snaps a Horizon guard's neck easily and stares at Alex with narrowed eyes. Alex rushes past her, searching for Kara and ignoring the woman who is looking at her. Two steel like arms latch onto Alex as she moves to turn a corner and they shove her into a wall harshly. Alex stares at the woman walking up to her, aliens scatter to make way for her, cautious. Those that had followed Alex blindly, stiffen in confusion. Others rush down the hall to continue their mayhem, ignoring them all.

Alex tilts her head to find two people holding her arms, a hand tight at her elbow and another at each shoulder. Limiting her movements as her feet barely brush the floor. The woman grabs Alex's helmet and Alex barely has the state of mind to activate the emergency respirator, biting into the plastic as the helmet rips off. Alex keeps the respirator in her mouth, knowing she can't breathe the air on Horizon. Not like most aliens could. The woman glares at her, at the respirator in her mouth and recognizing Alex as a human, not a kryptonian, wearing the House of El.

The unknown woman is nearly foaming at the mouth as she snarls. "You wear the House of El, yet you are human. Why?"

Alex tilts her chin high, keeping the respirator in her mouth. The woman tightens her grip on Alex's chin, moving to pull the respirator out. "WAIT!"

Alex tries to jerk out of the woman's hold just to see where the voice is coming from. The woman stops, turning to look in the direction the voice is coming from, eyes narrowed, suspicious yet curious. "Why Little one?"

Kara appears out of the shadows, bloodied and thinner than Alex remembers. Alex jerks in the hold of the aliens, trying to get to Kara, the woman tightens her grip as do her two cohorts. Kara's smile is blinding. "Alex." She breathes out like Alex is the name of her God, like Alex even compares to Rao. Alex's shoulders relax when she sees Kara alive and alright. "Was this your doing? Riots in Horizon?" Alex's lips pull into a smile and she nods, beyond relieved that her plan had worked. That Kara could be free again. "Let her go, she's here to rescue me." Kara's fingers curl around the woman's grip, gently pulling her away from Alex. 

The woman sneers at Alex. "That is why she wears your house?"

Kara's fingers brush the marking on Alex's right chest, eyes filled with tears. "Yeah, so I'd recognize her." She looks around. "Where's her helmet, the respirator won't let her speak." The helmet is handed back and despite the chaos around them Kara quells the anger and confusion of all the people near Alex like she had when they were young. The two holding her and the woman in front of her look at Kara like she was something more. The helmet slips over Alex's head and Alex allows the respirator to snap back into place. "Good?" Kara questions, looking at the dark helmet.

Alex grins despite Kara not being able to see it. "Golden Kar."

Kara pulls her into a tight hold despite the two people holding Alex against the wall. Alex itches to cling to her just as tightly. "I missed you."

With a sharp gesture from the woman with white in her hair the two aliens let Alex's arms go. Alex clings to Kara. "Missed you too, lets get out of here."

Kara pulls back, grin wobbly and eyes full of tears. "You have a ship?"

"We'll be taking the one I came in." Alex shifts in Kara's hold, refusing to release the alien completely. "I just need a second to get those not loyal off."

Worry forces a furrow between Kara's brow. "How?"

"Let me deal with it." Alex's gloved fingers soothe of the cracked skin of Kara's knuckles. "Just wait for my signal, wait twenty yards away from the ship. I'll give a signal when you can come."

Kara bites her lips. "I've got some people that need to come as well." Alex looks between the aliens that surround them, that keep the guards and other aliens at bay. Alex lets out a sigh, of course Kara finds friends in the middle of fricking prison. "They helped me."

"Make sure they know the drill too." Alex will give the world to anyone who helped Kara, who protected her when Alex had failed her. "Can't have anyone messing it up. Twenty minutes tops."

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

Alex stumbles onto the ship, favoring her right knee heavily. "Harper." She grits out, face twisted in pain under her helmet as the tint of it fades under the florescent lights of the ship.

The man tilts his head, narrowing his eyes. "Your com and camera went offline." There's a weariness in his stance, suspicion.

"Helmet got smashed." She motions to the broken visor, cracked nearly bad enough to allow air in.

He nods before looking to the open door behind her, brow furrowed. "Where's the rest of your unit?"

"Coming back." She limps closer, leaning against the wall near him like she can barely stand. He relaxes some more as he regards her haggard state. "I had an important message to deliver to you."

He huffs, motioning with his hand, relaxed and a little annoyed. "Well, get out with it Commander Danvers." Alex pulls out her pistol swiftly, shooting him in the chest right at his laser disruptor and shooting again when his shields go down before disarming him with quick efficiency, hands shoving him down as she snatches his pistol off him. He stares at her in shock, clutching at his bleeding side like this was a complete shock for him as he cowers on the ground. "Yo-you betray me, why?"

Alex steps on his chest, pressing down with her boot, until she can lean over and glare at him as he wheezes for breath. "Over a year ago you took someone important to me."

He sneers at her, choking out with hatred as he struggles to remember. "An alien." He growls out, blood painting his teeth. "You betrayed us, your species, for an _alien."_

"Yes."

He lets out a wet chuckle, malicious glee in his eyes. "She's probably dead by now, tortured for information."

Alex lets out a mocking laugh, and Harper tenses, waiting. "No, she was on Horizon, i'm surprised you didn't know. I've been planning this since she was taken away." Alex presses her gun to his head, eyes hard and he swallows thickly. "I wish it wasn't this way, but you betrayed me first and no one hurts Kara." She pulls the trigger and watches his blood spray the floor before she makes her way through the rest of the vessel.

* * *

 

Within fifteen minutes she has most of the crew tied up. They glare at her mutinously, three of them dead at her feet before she fires stunning shots at the ones tied up. She opens the door and Vasquez and the remaining twelve soldiers shove the tied up, disarmed and now unconscious soldiers out the door. They hit the ground with dull thuds and Alex watches as Kara comes running forward from behind a boulder, blood across her forehead and with dirt caked over her cheeks. The blonde alien grins as she stumbles onto the ship, ignoring the unconscious people outside the door. "Took you long enough, I was worried."

Kara throws herself into Alex's arm and Alex clings to her, burying her face into the blonde's shoulder, knocking into Kara's chin with the hard helmet just a little. "I'm fine Kar."

"Sorry I took so long, had to grab some more friends." Kara clings to her, tight and unforgiving and Alex relaxes into it before she looks up to watch ten aliens come waltzing into the ship. 

The soldiers stiffen and Alex barks out. "Stand down." They stand down, slowly, warily but they'd seen what Alex had done to the other. "We're leaving now, Kara get your friends situated, Donovan will show you the way. The rest of you to your stations, we're leaving Horizon."

Once it's just Vasquez and Alex they head to cockpit. Vasquez straps in, fingers flying across the controls before Alex presses. "Vazquez?"

Vasquez grins up at her, smiles like she hadn't in a long time. "Ma'am."

Alex leans against the back of the chair, ribs aching and she pulls her helmet off, breathing in the crisp air of the ship. "Get us someplace to lay low."

"Of course, we abandoning the ship?"

Alex's face is grim with determination. "No, changing colors. Get us moving, we're leaving Horizon in the dust."

Vasquez's grin is all teeth. "Roger that ma'am." Before she begins flipping all sorts of switch as Alex makes her way out of the room.

Alex marches down to the brig, her hands shake but she doesn't want to stop moving. Can't. She had just killed her Commanding Officer and nine of her crew-mates. She had left twenty of her crew-mates, people she had been serving with for two years, on a prison planet with toxic air, where the prisoners were rioting. She had just commandeered a Naval Space Vessel. She had ten unknown alien prisoners on her ship moving freely, so what damage could two more do?

There's a fire burning in the small room of the brig, using up oxygen, but it was the only way to keep the prisoners contained and Harper took so much joy in it. Alex kills the flame, hands trembling. There's a sudden flutter of air behind her, her long hair falling out of it's bun.

She can feel Kara at her back now, weak but there. Apparently she left her friends in the care of Donovan just to be with Alex. Alex's fists tremble before she settles her hand onto the pad, letting it scan her. It hisses open and both prisoners look up at her, weary. She takes a step back letting the prisoners see the corridor. Kara, curious and worried, remains quiet, trusting Alex despite all they had been through.

"What is the meaning of this?" And the green martian's voice is thick with pain and exhaustion, a hint of suspicion there. The white martian next to him is pressed into the corner, as far away from the green male as they can be.

"Colonel Harper is dead." Alex tilts her chin high, keeps her voice even."This is no longer a Naval Space Vessel."

The green male looks at her curiously, blinking his red eyes at her. "And what kind of vessel is it then?"

Kara grins behind her and Alex's fingers twitch, remembering the stories Kara used to whisper to her at night, about pirates of the old world and how they ruled the open sea. She barely refrains from a sarcastic comment about being pirates. "One without colors."

The green martian stares at her, like he can see through her. Like he knows everything about her so she fights to keep her mind clear. "And why would you defect from the Terran Naval forces?"

"They stole something of mine." Her eyes itch to dart back to Kara but she holds it in. Better to not let weaknesses be known to those she doesn't know.

He stands slowly, muscles trembling. "What will you do with us?"

Alex purses her lips. "We'll be stopping on an abandoned planet to take off the N.S.V colors, get fuel and drop off those who don't want to continue, after that we will travel to the Scrapyard. You can get off wherever you want, at the planet or at the Scrapyard."

He blinks at her curiously as the white martian stays pressed into the back wall, like they want it to swallow them whole. "Why the Scrapyard?"

Alex's lips twitch but she meets red eyes with her own. "We have a friend we need to pick up."

Kara bounces behind her in excitement, fingers clutching at Alex's belt loops, always touching her. "We're actually doing this Alex?"

"Of course."

* * *

Alex hadn't slept in 48 hours, too busy filling the fifteen roles of the crew-mate she had left behind and the nine dead, too busy trying to find those loyal and those simply wanting to stay off the prison planet. She needs to inventory the rations, the weapons and figure out where each crew member needs to reside. Where the aliens, if they stay, will work best. Then there's the fact that she had left Kara sleeping in her bed, alone.

Kara had practically dragged Alex there two hours ago. Had wrapped her in kryptonian warm arms and fell asleep like she hadn't slept peacefully in the year they've been separated. Alex had cradled Kara to her chest until Kara had fallen asleep. Face slack in sleep, the lines she had gather in the year away from Alex, un-wrinkling. She looked like she used to, before Alex had failed her. Alex only feels guilt and it forces her to move. To fix what she can when sleep evades her. Near twenty-four hours since she had killed Harper and they had hidden in the asteroid belt, dust covering them and all systems in rest so as not to alert any ships near them. 

The lights are dimmed as she moves to the command center, the dark abyss of space showing just outside the window. "So you are Alexandra Danvers."

Alex stiffens, turns to find the woman who had viciously snapped a prison guards neck when Alex had first saw her. The white streak seemingly glows as the barely there light hits it, her dark hair is still greasy from the prison and her eyes are dark and unforgiving. Everything about her sets Alex on edge. "Yes."

The woman watches her with lazy yet calculating eyes, like a lion staring at a fly. "Do you know who I am?"

Alex tilts her chin up. "General Astra In-Ze, Kara's aunt."

Astra hums, low and quiet. "She has told you of me then."

Alex remembers stories when they were young, of a General who did what had to be done. Who brought Kara presents and loved her so much. "Yes."

"Good, then you know I will kill you should you ever harm her."

Alex lets out a soft sound before her shoulders tense. "I would die before I hurt Kara."

"Yet you allowed her to be captured. Taken to the prison." Alex's hands shake but she doesn't argue, can't argue with the truth. Astra stares at her curiously.  "Will you not defend yourself?"

Alex swallows thickly, feeling like there is a rock in her throat, heavy on her chest. "I won't argue against what we both know is true."

Astra tilts her head and Alex is reminded of Kara with that sharp movement. It makes everything hurt a little bit more. "So you admit you failed her?"

Alex clenches her jaw, every self loathing thought she's had in the last two years surfaces easily, bombarding her with gleeful intensity. "Yes."

"Will you fail her again?"

Alex's shoulders tremble. "I will die before I fail her again."

The woman stares at Alex for a few minutes, seemingly searching for something and Alex lets her. Lets her read the anguish and self-hatred that burns in Alex's muscles. That had been Alex's constant companions the last year. "Then why are you down here and not with Kara?" 

"The ship needs to run." Alex pushes out, throat tight. Chest heavy like Astra could see every emotion and thought. Like she was a martian, not kryptonian. "I need to get everything situated before we leave for port."

"Kara has nightmares, i'm sure you could suss that out yourself. Why are you not with her, waking her from them." Alex holds her tongue, trembles as Astra hits every weakness Alex has ever had. "Are you always this mute girl? Or is it because you know you failed her." Astra stalks closer, using her height to loom over Alex, voice sharp as a hot knife. "That you could have stopped it, could have prevented these results?"

"Aunt Astra." Kara's voice comes from the shadows, dark and angry, nothing like Alex had ever heard it. "Stop it."

"Kara." Astra softens around the edges like Alex had seen her do on Horizon. "I was simply discussion things with our _Captain_ here."

Kara lets out a soft sound. "Aunt Astra."

Astra lets out a grunt, conceding. "Goodnight Little One."

Kara murmurs in reply, watching her aunt walk to her room before she turns back to Alex. "You don't believe that, do you Alex?"

"Kara." And it's a quiet exhale of her name, defeated and so broken.

"You did everything you could." Kara stares at Alex, taking in her features like Alex had when Kara slept. Like she couldn't believe Alex was real and there. "Come to bed."

Alex trembles, eyes filling with tears. "I _can't."_

Kara steps close to her, finger coming up to smooth over Alex's cheek. "Why?"

Alex leans into the hand, trembling. "I'll wake up and this will all be a dream."

Kara's face shatters at Alex's words. "Oh Alex." Kara practically slams into her, tightening her arm until Alex's ribs protest. Alex falls into her like she always had. 

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

The Scrapyard is exactly how Alex remembers it, dirty, full of pieces of ships and weapons. Dust clinging to everything with the red sun hot on their skin. The ship lands easily enough with half it's crew and they stumble from the bowels of the ship. Most head to the local bar while some go to the square to barter. Astra leaves, her two soldiers hot on her heels and the blonde alien with the ridges, Lyra, following after them. The green martian makes his way through the crowd and Kara sticks to Alex's side. "You think he's still here?"

Alex snorts, pulling at the dark undershirt that clings to her skin even as the wind ruffles her freshly cut hair. It's uncomfortable not being in uniform, but people would recognize the N.S.V. uniform and regulation bun. "This place is like heaven to him Kar, course he's still here."

Kara's hand tightens in hers and the red sun makes Kara's hair glow softly, she looks happy. Healthy, like she hadn't spent more than a year imprisoned at Horizon. "Remember when we first hit the Scrapyard."

Alex snorts again even as the wind shoves small strands of hair into her eyes. "You broke the regulator and this was the closest port."

Kara lets out a happy hum. "Your dad made friends with everyone here I think."

"Three months here." Alex leans her head back, remembering. It had been a time of their life when worry was little, when her dad was still alive and her mom could still stand to look at her. 

Kara presses into Alex's side, offering comfort. "You threatened to maim Winn a hundred times."

"He managed to blow up the shower unit trying to  _improve_ it." Alex grumbles out and Kara laughs, it had been a smelly few days after that fiasco.

They spot him easily enough through the crowd of aliens, can hear his excitement yards away. He stands a little shorter than some of the aliens around him but his thick dark hair is easy to spot. It's a little longer than he used to keep it. A new scar rests on his chin but his eyes are just as bright as he speaks to a customer. He must sense them or at least feel their eyes on him because he looks up, searching the crowd curiously. He eyes Alex for a second, something like recognition there before he sees Kara at her side, shock then pure unbridled happiness flashes across his face. 

He says something to his customer before he takes off running, his feet too quick for the rest of his body like always. He manages to stumble into Kara and yank her into a hug at the same time. He lifts her off her feet with a loud whoop of joy. The masses of species stare but they go about their business. Kara grips him back just as tightly, laughing into his shoulder as he spins her around. 

There's tears in his eyes when he sets her down and Alex's lips threaten to pull into a smile at the two nerds in front of her. Something in her chest aches, Winn had stayed here, had made a home at the Scrapyard, waiting for them like he said he would all those years ago when the world was falling apart. He grins at Alex, hand reaching out to squeeze her elbow, she raises an eyebrow and opens her arms. It'd been years since they'd seen him in person. He hugs her quickly, tightly, resting his head on hers before pulling back with a wide grin. He opens his mouth to say something when he spots the ship. The Scrapyard had ships that he'd memorized but none like this. He filters through the schematics before his eyes widen. "Holy hells Alex. You _didn't."_  

"I did." The Naval ship is covered in a very bad paint job and any defining logos had been welded off. Its barely recognizable, but Winn has always been good at recognizing ships. "It is the ship I was most familiar with, it comes with partial crew too."

He's almost vibrating with joy. "We're actually doing this?"

"Yeah, we're doing it. You still in?"

He nods his head vigorously. "The ship needs some work, I can do it here." Alex narrows her eyes and Winn shrugs. "I'm not flying in a ship that looks like its trying to hide. We need actual colors, a name. A calling sign too, it needs work. Maybe some mods so no-one recognizes it for what it is."

Alex rolls her eyes, itching to get on the move again. At least a few galaxies away from Terran space. "Not everyone is as perceptive as you Winn."

"No, but it only takes one person. How long are we docking for?" Something settles in Alex's chest as he says 'we', as he lumps himself with them already.

"How ever long it takes you to fix this thing and pack up I guess." She looks around, Kara's hand tangling with her like she can't stand to not touch her. Alex understands it and Winn grins at them. "I need supplies as well."

He's starts eyeing the ship, mind racing. "Shop is in the same place, i'll let some people know i'm leaving after I fix it." He looks up eagerly. "We stopping by Meridian to pick up a friend or two?"

Alex grins and Kara vibrates with joy next to her. "If they're still there."

* * *

* * *

 

The crews in the pub, they're the only group of mostly humans, the Terran Naval had not been too keen on aliens and every knew it. Havens like the Scrapyard were always weary of a group of humans, but the two martians are there as well as the other aliens so the looks at least aren't scathing, just curious. Astra hangs back in the shadows, her two soldiers and Lyra beside her. Bryan sits beside Winn, discussing schematics to the ship eagerly, his blue skin flushed with excitement. Alex sits beside Kara, eyes on her people. They'd lost half of the crew when they'd docked to get fuel at the previous planet, Alex figured they might but it still sets them back on crew numbers. Now it's just her, Vasquez and five of the original human crew and six of the aliens they had save from Horizon and the two martians from their brig. Kara stays pressed to her side, refusing to leave her and Alex can't fault her for that. Doesn't want Kara out of her sight when they're not on the ship. In a few days time they will be on their way, plans put in action and flying halfway across the galaxy to gather more friends. Alex feels level for once, like with Kara back at her side she can do anything.


	9. Opposite Sides of a War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cadmus got to the Danvers' first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short and not very concise drabble. It's more like a series of snapshots.

"Mom." Alex sits down next to her, her mother's blue eyes are dull, skin pale. "I nearly got them this time."

Eliza Danvers tilts her head to the side, staring at her daughter, eyes hazy.  "Oh Alexandra." She presses her fingers to her daughter's face, there's something in her eyes as she stares at her daughter. "Cuckoos lie in wait."

Alex closes her eyes at her mother's rambling, reach up to clasp her mother's hands. "I'll finish it mom. I'll kill them all, I promise."

"My sweet Alexandra." Her fingers tighten across Alex's cheeks, almost strong enough to bruise. "The world will be heavy at the end of war."

Alex pulls their hands from her face, holding them clasped in her own fingers. "I promise mom."

Eliza doesn't seem to see her daughter now, instead fingers tighten on her daughter's hand as eyes stare unseeing at the wall. "The world is heavy with the weight of sins not yours."

Alex's chin trembles and she rests her forehead on her mother's shoulder, Eliza's hand comes up to stroke Alex's long wavey hair and Alex fights back a sob at the familiar affection. "I love you mom."

Clarity seems to flutter into blue eyes and Eliza's lips tremble as she stares at her daughter. "As long as the stars burn."

Alex lets out a sob at this. "Yeah mom, as long as stars burn I love you." They sit there for almost an hour, Alex's forehead pressed to her mother's shoulder and Eliza stroking her hair. Finally Alex stands, Eliza's hand falling from her hair. "I have to go mom, I'll be back."

Eliza stares up at her, eyes hazy. "Beware the scorpion, my little frog." Alex jerks back with a start, something niggling in her memory.

"Mom? What?" Alex furrows her brow, leaning forward, stomach churning. "What do you mean?"

Eliza opens her mouth, meets Alex's eyes, ones that looks so much like Jeremiah's that Eliza stills. Her eyes glaze over again, losing the slight clarity they had for those few seconds. "Give your father a hug for me."

"I-" Alex's throat closes up. "I will mom." Eliza hums and turns to stare at the painting on the wall. Alex leaves, hands shaking. She bumps into a nurse who looks at her with a pitying gaze.

She reaches out to clasp a comforting hand on Alex's shoulder. "Some days are better than most." 

Alex snarls at her, jerking away from her hands. "I know that." She hunches her shoulders and stalks out the doors and away from the building. Her hands tremble and the wind catches in her hair, the sun is barely climbing in the sky, early in the morning. Eliza always had been a morning bird, at least that hadn't changed. Alex closes her eyes, lets the sun wash over her face as it slowly rises behind buildings. Today had been one of the more difficult days and she can feel a piece of her heart cracking all over again.

She stalks down the sidewalks, today was lab day and she didn't have to be in there until at least 8:30, she had time to kill. It's barely past seven in the morning but the city is bustling with activity. Alex keeps her hands buried in her leather jacket as she makes her way to a coffee shop. She bumps into a girl as she walks out the door, a cup of coffee steaming in her hands. There's a messenger bag on her shoulder, threatening to slip down, files in her other hand and a bag of food held precariously in her mouth. Alex barely manages to stumble back as she bumps into the taller woman. It's like hitting a brick wall as wide blue eyes look at her. "I'm so sorry." The words are muffled by the bag of food in her mouth.

In any other instance, especially after a rough morning with her mother, Alex would be short and angry. But there something about the girl, her earnest wide blue eyes and hands that threaten to flutter out anxiously despite being weighed down by coffee and files. Alex lets her lips twitch, almost a grin. "It's cool."

The girl grins at her, wide and earnest, teeth clamped on the bag of food. "I love your hair." And her hands threaten to jerk out as if to motion to it or touch Alex's hair, glowing almost red as the sun strikes it. Blue eyes dart to her watch and she jerks. "Nice to meet you, I'm late though! Have a good day." Exactly how she'd stumbled into Alex's life the girl is gone within seconds.

Alex snorts softly, shaking her head. "Cute." Ahead of her, the girl lets out something of a squeak as she stumbles over nothing but air. Alex lets out another soft sound before heading into the coffee shop.

* * *

* * *

 

Alex walks into the coffee shop later that same week, head tilted back to look at the options when she spots the girl in front of her. She hums low, trying to place the familiar broad shoulders when the girl tilts her head as if hearing something before turning slowly, she grins when she spots Alex. It's the girl that bumped into her a week ago. "Hey!" Her grin is blinding white teeth and pure joy.

"I guess were both caffeine addicts?" Alex starts off, chewing on her lip to keep from blurting out anything else.

The girl laughs, shaking her head, blue eyes bright behind her glasses. "No, its for my boss. I don't drink caffeine."

Alex tilts her head. "I don't know how you're so bright this morning then." She narrows her eyes. "Don't tell me you're a morning person."

Unknown coffee girl laughs, pushing her glasses up her nose. "The suns up so i'm up."

Alex shakes her head. "Quoting _Frozen_ on me?"

The blonde tilts her head, lips quirking into a grin. _"Frozen_ quoted me."

Alex tilts her head to the side. "Really now?" Her eye brow arches up and she watches a blush shift up the blonde's neck.

"Well not really." With the flush across her skin, she rubs the back of her neck. "But I've gotten into the habit of getting up with the sun, rejuvinating."

Alex barks out a laugh, leaning back against a table. "You're not usually a morning person?"

"Not until I wake up completely, I like my bed."

"So you're not always this sunny?"

The blonde snorts. "No, my best friend would say I'm the least morning person ever."

Alex shakes her head. "I'll believe that when I see it." Her eyes widen. "Not that I um. Sorry." And she stumbles over her words like she hadn't in so many years, blushing like a teenager on a first date. 

"I'm Kara. Kara Kent." She holds out her hand, eyes bright and lips curved into a small smile.

Alex grabs it with her own, it's smooth and Kara's grip is strong, little stronger than Alex had thought it would be. "Alex Danvers."

Much to Alex's delight, coffee slowly becomes their regular go to.

* * *

* * *

 

Kara narrows her eye, something dark in them when Alex sits across from her in their coffee shop a couple weeks later. "You've got a black eye."

Alex reaches up, thinking her cover-up had rubbed off. "I kick-box, an opponent got me." The lie comes easy, has since she first started using it all those years ago.

Kara's jaw is tight, brow furrowed as she stares at Alex. "You kick-box?" There's suspicion there, and concern.

Alex grins, leaning forward, letting her arms flex as she moves. "Yeah, I can show you sometime." That draws a familiar blush from Kara, creeping from her cheeks and down her neck and Alex relaxes at the diverted crisis.

* * *

* * *

 

"My mother, she's sick." Alex is pushing the words out over their morning coffee. "There was an accident, it killed my father and my mother was hurt." Kara is staring at her with empathy, like she's been through what Alex has. "Her brain is a mess, she can't distinguish reality."

Kara stares at her, doesn't touch Alex but she starts to speak slowly. "I lost my w- my entire family when I was young." Kara's fingers twitch, tearing the napkin in her hand to pieces. "There was a fire, an explosion. It took them all from me, my mom made sure I was safe, but everyone else died." And they stare at one another for what fells like eternity, a silence that isn't awkward but full of a deep sadness.

"I guess we're both screwed on the family department." Alex lets out a choked sound that catches in her throat. "Sorry, i'm not-"

Kara pulls her in for a hug. "I cried for a week straight. This is still fresh for you." Alex falls into her, feels a comfort she hasn't felt in years.

* * *

* * *

 

Alex changes it up one day, heading to CatCo to surprise Kara. She makes it up the elevator, the door man having recommended she not use the smaller one to the right. The entire room is bustling with activity when she steps out, she spots Kara easily. The blonde is juggling three different sets of paper and talking on the phone. She manages to set them all on the table when she looks up, brow furrowed like she sensed something.

Her eyes find Alex and they crinkle as she grins. Alex makes her way over, holding the bag of food out, face flushed with nerves. "I know this isn't coffee, but I thought you'd be hungry?"

Kara grins at her, eyes bright before she pulls Alex into a tight hug despite the eyes on them. "Starving."

* * *

* * *

 

Alex comes to game night, there's a pained edge about her. She'd gotten clipped by an alien yesterday, broke three ribs and bruised her side darker than a eggplant.

Kara twitches, finger reaching out for her, gentle as ever. "You okay?"

Alex grins, shaking her head and pressing a kiss to Kara's lips. "Yeah."

Kara narrows her eyes at Alex. "Are your ribs broken?"

Alex lets out a pained grin. "Someone got a few good hits in during class." She winks at Kara, pressing a kiss to the blonde cheek. "Protected my face this time."

Kara furrows her brow and she smooths her fingers gently over Alex's ribs, like she can see the bruises. Alex shivers, it doesn't hurt, the soft barely there touch. "Why would you do that to yourself?"

Alex's grin becomes cheeky and she laces her fingers with Kara's. "I like the challenge."

There's a man with dark unkempt hair and a cardigan, Winn she supposes based on Kara's descriptions, whose eyes are wide and he's looking between them. Alex hadn't seen him at CatCo the few times she took Kara lunch but CatCo was busy and Kara was always on the move. James Olsen, she recognizes him from a few articles but mostly from his connection to Superman, is watching them curiously, sipping on his beer. He doesn't seem as shocked at Winn looks.

The short woman with striking eyes and a stern face must be Lucy, Alex remembers stories Kara had told her about her best friend. Lucy's eyes are narrowed, like she taking everything about Alex and tearing it to pieces in her head, trying to find a flaw. To make sense. Alex recognizes her as a DEO agent, has shot at the woman a few times, but holds her tongue. Lucy won't recognize her, CADMUS was smart about hiding their soldiers face, the DEO, not so much. But she notes to keep from speaking or being around Lucy too much.

* * *

* * *

 

Kara looks down at her phone, a crinkle forming between her eyes. Alex lets a slow smile creep across her face. "Go."

Kara looks up quickly, blinking at Alex. "What?"

Alex raises an eyebrow. "CatCo emergency, I recognize that crinkle. Cat is beckoning you, or Snapper." Alex smooths her hand over Kara's, squeezing gently. "It's okay, go."

Kara searches Alex's face before leaning forward quickly and pressing a kiss, short yet not chaste at all, to Alex's lips. Alex grins into it before Kara pulls back. "I'm so sorry Alex."

"It's fine Kar, go, we have more nights than tonight to share dinner." Kara's eyes are soft but she rushes out of the doorway.

Alex shakes her head with a soft sigh, Kara's boss was nothing if not interruptive. There's a soft buzz against her hip and she pulls out her phone. A text lets her know Supergirl is occupied with a couple of aliens downtown. The text tells her she needs to break into a bunker with five other agents while the superhero is distracted and gather intel and kryptonite. Which a huff she pays for dinner and heads to her motorcycle to meet up with the other agents. She just glad Kara had an emergency as well, that Alex isn't leaving her at a fancy dinner to go steal things and kill some DEO agents. Kill the people that took her father from her.

* * *

* * *

 

Kara shakes her head vehemently. "She's fine Lucy."

"Kara, there's something fishy about her." Lucy presses, her instincts telling her there's something wrong. She trusted her guts when she was deployed, she'll trust them now too. "She nearly clams up when you mention her injuries, though she's good at hiding it."

Kara pulls at the sleeves of her shirt, lips twisted into a frown. "Her heart rate only skips once before evening out Luce."

Lucy crosses her arms, letting out a huff. "So she's good at lying."

"Or hiding injuries." Kara shrugs, eyes wide and desperate. "They're from kickboxing."

Lucy stares at her, she's not Lucy best friend, she's Deputy Director Lane. She's Major Lane, she's following her instincts that are screaming ta her something is wrong. "You guys have been together, what five months?"

Kara narrows her eyes, jaw tight. "Yeah."

Lucy loosens her shoulder, draws back from her combative stance, this was Kara, not someone who needed reprimanding. "Do you know where she works?"

"Some lab downtown." Kara's voice is frustrated, the most it's ever been. "I can't remember the name of it. There's an L in the name."

Lucy hums, then vows to begin looking into Alex with Vasquez's help, she should have done it sooner but Kara was happy. After the James debacle, which the three of them were over thank god, Lucy just wanted Kara to be happy, and Alex made her happy. But Alex was hiding something, that much Lucy knew.

* * *

* * *

 

Alex opens the door slowly after knocking, Kara's hand tangled in hers. She trembles but Kara is steady at her back, flowers in her hands. "Mom, this is Kara, my girlfriend."

Eliza blinks up at her curiously, lips tremble as she speaks. "I recognize the stardust in your eyes."

Kara tilts her head but smiles. "Most people just say they love the blue, it's nice to meet you Mrs. Danvers."

Eliza smiles, slow and unassuming as she takes the flowers from Kara, breathing them in slowly. "Eliza, please." Kara dips her head in agreement before Eliza turns to Alex. "Have the cuckoos been found yet?"

Alex kneels down next to her mother. "No, not any that I found." She share a trembling smile with Kara but rest her hands against her mother's. "What did you do today mom?"

"Painted." Eliza strokes the painting in front of her, Alex recognizes the beach right outside their house in Midvale. "Your father stopped by." Alex barely keeps the tears from falling at the mention of her father. At the realization that her mother is still in a bad way mentally. "He's so tired, but he is immune to the venom. The scorpion got him once, don't let it get you Alex. I fear you won't be immune."

Alex sets her head against her mother's knee. Kara sits down beside her, watching Eliza stroke Alex's long hair. "I'll be fine mom, cuckoos and scorpions won't get me."

Eliza hums lowly before shifting her gaze to Kara. "The scorpions have poison for you as well, be wary Little Stardust."

Kara tilts her head before nodding. "Thank you for the warning Eliza." Kara leans forward. "How long did it take you to paint this? I recognize the painting style."

Eliza smiles. "Sharp eyes full of stardust. Keen." Eliza murmurs before reaching for Kara's hand, they sit in the silence for awhile. Kara content to watch Alex's shoulders relax, watch Alex seek comfort from her mother. She aches for her own mother in this moment. What seems like hours later when Alex stands, Eliza's fingers curve around Kara's hand and she stares at Kara, eyes clearing up before she murmurs to the both of them. "The sun came from the stars." Kara swallows, nodding slowly like she understands what Eliza is saying and Alex's hands tremble as she kisses the back of her mother's other hand. Eliza turns to her daughter. "Let the sun guide you Alex, it'll light the shadows my sweet girl."

Long fingers curl around Alex's cheek and Alex leans into it. "I'll be back in a few days, I love you mom."

Eliza strokes her daughter cheek, murmurs lowly. "As long as the stars burn Alexandra."

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

"Kara?" Alex is growing pale under her dark tactical gear. Her helmet and mask drop from her fingers, and her gun trembles in her other hand. Kara is wheezing in front of her, Alex would recognize those eyes anywhere. She hadn't given the superhero much thought. But right here, right now, looking at Supergirl this close, as she struggles for breath, face pale, Alex recognizes her. "What, what are you doing?"

Kara looks up at her, face twisted in betrayal and disbelief. "You're CADMUS?" And her words threaten to break Alex's chest wide open.

Alex's hands won't quit trembling, her men are sweeping the rest of the building. They had knocked Supergirl from the sky but hadn't seen exactly where she crash landed. Alex sent them searching. "You're Supergirl?"

They both just stare at each other, Kara weak from the kryptonite trap they'd shot her with. It winds around her limbs, digging into her flesh. Alex had designed it. Made it specifically so a kryptonian couldn't get out. That any attempt would only lead to more pain. She hates herself a little bit right now, the way Kara's face is twisted in pain and betrayal. The call comes over her radio just seconds later. _"Bring Supergirl to me before DEO reinforcements come."_ It's Henshaw, his gruff voice angered and impatient.

Alex closes her eyes, hands trembling before she steps closer to Kara. Kara stiffens, she can't move, can't run and her own earpiece is blowing up with noise from the DEO. "I need you to do me a favor." Alex's voice trembles but there's a plea to it. Kara stares blankly at her, eyes full of tears and trembling. Alex presses her fingers into the trap, into the locks she herself had made. With a twist of her fingers she releases Kara. "They'll know I did this. I need you to get my mother and hide her for me. Keep her safe."

Kara sits up slowly, shaking off the kryptonite, she looks wary but hopeful. "You can come with me."

Alex shakes her head, hands still shaking and her heart pounding away in her chest. "CADMUS will never let me live, not with what I know. I won't risk my mother or yo- anyone else. Go."

Kara backs away slowly and there's chatter over the comms, CADMUS calling for Alex's report, she presses into her earpiece. "She's not in this building, heading for the next." Her voice doesn't waiver and she stares at Kara as she disconnects her earpiece. "Go, you don't owe me anything. Just, they'll kill my mom. Use her against me. I need her safe."

* * *

* * *

 

They push her into the interrogation room when they get back from the mission. The kryptonite trap resting on the table. "Why did you let Supergirl go?" Alex holds her tongue. "Why did you free an alien Alexandra?" She stays quiet. Hank Henshaw grumbles behind Lillian. "What was that Henshaw?"

"I said let me have a go at her, she'll start talking."

Lillian hums low before gripping Alex's face, it's gentle. Soft like a mother's touch yet clinical like a doctor's. Alex's hands are bound to a chair as are her legs and chest, Lillian tilts Alex's head back. "You are valuable Alexandra, but not as valuable as you might think. You'll want to start speaking, Henshaw's good at breaking things as you well know." Alex stays quiet and Lillian hums, low and disappointed. "What would your mother say? your father? They fought so hard against aliens and here you are, letting one free." Lillian lets out a low sound, something of great amusement. "Seems we've trained you to withhold interrogations too well, though this was the soft edge. Henshaw will be the sharp one. You will speak Alex, everyone always does." Her fingers brush Alex sweaty hair from her face. "You know this."

* * *

* * *

 

Kara paces the length of the room as she watches J'onn speak to Eliza a few rooms away. "Lucy, what will CADMUS do to her?"

"She disobey direct order." Lucy's voice is tense, her entire body wound tighter than a string. "They can court Marshall her or worse."

Kara stiffens, fingers tangled in her cape. "What's worse?"

"Interrogation until she gives up your identity." Lucy stops all move, grabbing at Kara's hands to still them and bring the kryptonian's attention to her fully. "How much do you trust her?"

"Lucy?"

"We'll have to move the Kent's." Lucy's hand is soothing with it's tight grip on Kara's, keeps her from zipping away and breaking the sound barrier. "They'll need protection from CADMUS if she gives up your secret identity."

"What?" Kara's face moves through stages, disbelief, anger, frustration, anguish before settling on a low simmering anger again. "Lucy, she wouldn't."

Lucy stares at Kara, heart aching for the girl. Her fingers sooth over Kara's and she utters what will surely break the hero's heart. "Trusting her is very different than knowing whether or not she'll cave under torture."

* * *

* * *

 

Alex wakes up in a van, hands zip-tied in front of her and head bumping against the seat of the vehicle. She lets out a low groan opening her eyes as the vehicle comes to a stop. An agent nods at her, bloodied at the temple. "What?" She recognize the guy as a DEO agent, one that had thwarted her on some missions.

He smiles at her, grabbing her elbow to help her roll to sit up. "You were imprisoned by CADMUS for two weeks, DEO got you out. We tore the whole place apart." He squeezes gently. "Supergirl got to you first, managed to stop the electroshock before it got too intense." His hands are gentle as he helps her out of the car. "C'mon, the Director wants to speak to you first."

They manage to stumble-walk from the garage up to a main room, Alex's muscle aching from two weeks of torture and electricity. She spots Lucy and Kara, as Supergirl, she searches for her mother among the DEO agents before she sees something that makes her blood run cold.

Alex stiffens, like electricity is running once again through her body as the DEO agent comes to a stop in front of the Directior. "You're in charge of DEO?"

He narrows his eyes at her, tilting his head as he regards her. "Yes and you are Alexandra Danvers." Alex grabs a gun from the agent that brought her in, snatches it from him easily despite her wounds. She snaps the zip-ties open as she shoves the agent away and aims the stolen gun at the director of the DEO. This happens in a matter of second before anyone else can move.

Kara stiffen, eyes wide, hands trembling like she hadn't expected this. "Alex?"

There's a snarl on Alex's face, her bruise and bloodied cheek twinging. "He's CADMUS." There's a shiver that starts at her shoulders and moves down her arms to her hands. Eyes dark and haunted, she's staring at the Director of the DEO like he was a lion on a leash and he was hungry for Alex's blood.

Kara furrows her brow, stepping closer slowly if only to keep the DEO agents from firing at Alex. "What? No he's not."

"X-ray him, you'll see the cybernetics in him." Her body continues to tremble but her hands stay steady. J'onn, as Hank Henshaw, stands still, hands raised slightly. "CADMUS _made_ him. He'll kill you." And she's standing in front of Kara now, like she's the indestructible one.

Kara reaches out, sets a hand on Alex's shoulder. "No, he's not."

Alex lets out a sound of disbelief, uncaring of all the guns trained on her form as she keeps her own leveled at Hank's head. "Bull."

Kara shifts her feet, chewing on her lip. "See he's. Um, he's."

"Supergirl." Hank intones lowly and Kara stiffens her shoulders, waiting. "Ms Danvers, I do not trust you nor have you given me reason too, but I will tell you I am not the Hank Henshaw you know."

Alex snorts. "You saying you're the real one?" His eyebrow arches and she drops her gun, allowing the agent she took it from to grab it back and cuff her hands behind her back with biting metal. Her shoulders slump and she stares at him like she's seeing him for the first time, he's missing a few scars and his eyes are more thoughtful. More haunted. "So they succeeded in the cloning trials." She grumbles before being led away, leaving a concerned Kara and a stiff J'onn as Hank in her wake. Other agents look around warily, brains reeling at her words.

* * *

 

Alex is running through reciting the periodic table for the tenth time when she hears DEO Hank, who asked to be called J'onn, speak from the shadows outside her prison. "I knew your father."

She opens her eyes slowly, staring at the man who wasn't who he looked like. "He was a mole."

J'onn nods, sitting down slowly outside of the containment cell. "I know."

"Then why mention him?" She bites out, if only to get a rise out of his calm. To find his line.

He stares at her like he can see everything about her, like he know who she is better than she does. "He was going to roll on CADMUS, if we got you and Eliza out."

"He died."

There's guilt in his eyes now, so expressive and remorseful. "CADMUS killed him when they found out."

Alex slumps, runs her fingers through her newly cut hair. "I figured that out now. My mother?"

"They tried to brain wash her." He stares at her in sympathy and it's odd, seeing that look on the face of the man who took glee in torturing her. But this Hank, _J'onn,_  he's softer than Henshaw is, eyes full of anguish yet compassion. It makes her wonder who was the original. "It did not go well."

"Yeah." And its a defeated sound, she slumps against the glass of the cell they have her in. It's warmer than the CADMUS one, but it feels the same. Walls closing in and mundane colors all around. The only light to the darkness is when Kara comes to visit her every night. Sitting next to her, arms barely touching, but it's enough to keep Alex here. Keep her sane. Kara is safe, her mother is safe and if Alex can help the DEO take down CADMUS with all the knowledge she has in her head, she will. If only to protect her mother and Kara. If only to get revenge on them for killing her father and destroying her mother's mind. CADMUS will pay, one way or another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This wasn't evolved very well and I may come back to it to edit and make it longer but I felt the need to post it. It seemed finished to my muse for now, despite the odd flow and short choppy sections of the story.  
> Thanks for reading.


	10. Impulsive Decisions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Kara leaves after finding out the truth about Astra's death, everything changes. Myriad threatens to kill all of humanity and the DEO, and Alex, do the best they can.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is if Kara couldn't forgive Alex right away after finding out Alex killed Astra. One of the best moments of their relationship on the show was the scene where Alex admits to killing Astra and Kara pulls her into a hug. I loved it, but this scenario popped into my head and I had to get it out. Please enjoy.
> 
> Kalex is hinted at but not overtly shown in this chapter.

With a heavy heart Alex finishes attaching Kara's old pod to the Fort Rozz mainframe. Winn giving small suggestions into her ear, voice low and pained. His brain working a different angle than hers would. J'onn grunts over the comms as he distracts both Non and Indigo with the help of his best DEO agents and their pure human perseverance. Sparks dance across her fingers as some wires cross and she bites back a hiss. The green glow from the kryptonite suit illuminates some of the inner workings of the ship but Alex still has to shakes the flashlight attached to her vest to stop the flickering inside the dark bowels of Fort Rozz.

Her squad mates, people she had trained years with, scream over the comms, most out of pain and some, out of anger and grief. The longer Myriad continues the more her eyes burn and her head throbs. Winn is panting in her ear piece, she can hear the shake in his breath and the pain with each exhale. They were all suffering. She knows they can't deactivate Myriad, can't stop it, not this advanced of technology, but she can save Earth. She can do what needs to be done. She has to, there's nothing left for her, not after what she did. The look J'onn had given her had been one of grief and understanding as they'd left the DEO. Not all of them would come back from this battle and they both knew it. 

There's another spark before Kara's pod activates, humming lowly and glowing. Slowly Fort Rozz begins to hum again for the first time in thirteen years and Alex feels hope for once. Hudson calls over the comms before Alex can even ask her question. "The anti-gravs are attached where you wanted them Danvers." His voice is hard with pain, each word forced between his clenched teeth.

"Clear the area." Alex orders into the comms. She closes her eyes and moves to sit in the seat of the pod. "Evacuate."

"Danv-" Hudson's voice is full of confusion.

"That's an order." Alex's voice is hard and authoritative, Hudson had been through training with her, she knew he would argue, knew he wouldn't like this plan. "Director Henshaw knew the parameters of the mission and so did I."

"Dammit Danvers." There's a pained huff and then a heavy sigh. "Burn bright."

Alex swallows down the fear and the grief that eat at her. "Always."

She's clicking keys on the pod, setting the correct sequence and syncing the anti-gravity devices to the small pod that rest inside the commandment center of Fort Rozz. Hudson grunts again over the comms as she continues to set up the pod to control Fort Rozz. "We're all out, Indigo is dead, the Kryptonian Lieutenant is gone."

"Good."

"Any last requests?" His voice is so thick with sadness that it cracks halfway through.

"J'onn knows them." Alex presses her face into the side of the pod as it charges. Fort Rozz's hum grows louder, gaining power, lights flickering all around her. "There's a bottle of whiskey in my office. Top shelf stuff, unopened, enjoy it with Vasquez and the others. Director Lane and Henshaw too if you can."

"Always had a good taste in alcohol."

Alex scoffs. "Not me, my fa-" She's cut off by something slamming into her. The pod teeters before leveling as Alex's shoulders take the brunt of the impact with the floor. She struggles for breath as a hand harder than steel grips her throat. Non's bloodied, brow split open and teeth bared and blood red. His suit is in tatters and his anti-kryptonite shield is gone. Hudson shouts over the comms but she ignores him. Ignore J'onn when his voice sounds over the comms as well. She can't be distracted, not in a fight with a kryptonian.

Non's grip wanes the closer he is to her suit and she scrambles for a kryptonite knife on her belt, jabbing it into the meat of his shoulder with a soldiers efficiency, jerking and twisting to inflict more pain. He drops her with a grunt of pain and kicks her across the room with what little strength he has this close to kryptonite. There's a sharp crack as the knife breaks and skitters across the floor in pieces.

Alex flies from the kick and barely manages to tuck her knees and head in before she slams into the wall with a grunt. She hits the ground with a pained groan and rolls to her feet as Non races towards her, his face twisted into a fierce snarl. She blocks his strikes with the metal bracers of the suit, but can still feel the power behind them. He may be in the vicinity of kryptonite but he was working with years of rage and far more training than Alex had ever had. He lands a heavy hit to her chin, just barely glancing it as Alex yanks her head back. It throbs and she knows if she didn't have the suit on it would be fractured.

His shoulder continues to bleed lethargically and when his hand reaches for her throat again, like he want to feel and see the life drain out of her, she digs her thumb into the wound on his shoulder and twists. Non grits his teeth, veins throbbing in his head as he strains against the pain. Myriad pulses still in Alex's head and topped with Non's hands around her throat everything takes a hazy turn before she slams her forehead into his face. She had to get Fort Rozz off Earth and save those she cared about, those susceptible to Myriad. She needed to prevent Kara from losing another planet and Non wasn't going to stop her, not when she was this close. 

Non's nose breaks with a thick spurt of blood and the sharp pop of cartilage under the force of her forehead. Alex's fingers dig into his elbows and her foot clips the side of his knee in a singular motion. Alex ducks under Non as his grip slackens, she grips another knife and thrust it towards his ribs. He drops to his knees and rolls out of the way before she can thrust the knife into flesh. He comes to a crouch a few yards away from her and his hand curls around a crude piece of shrapnel, eyes dark and thunderous.

Alex bends her knees, ribs throbbing from the hit to the wall as she waits for him to attack. Knows its coming and the only thing keeping his full kryptonian speed and strength at bay is his closeness to her suit and the kryptonite piece in his shoulder. He flicks his gaze over her, calculating before jolting forward with a sudden burst of speed. She twists out of the way of the shrapnel in his right hand, dropping her arms in a quick strike to try and disable him. She doesn't see the second piece in his other hand until it's nearly too late. With a shout and a jerking motion she twists away again, but not nearly in time. Pain bursts across her side as the piece of shrapnel digs into the spot between her hip and ribs. Its cuts instead of piercing luckily and she slips her other knife into Non's already injured shoulder as his body over extends with the motion of his thrust. He grunts and she drops a heavy elbow to the back of his head, praying the metal of the suit and the kryptonite will work.

He falls with a grunt and before he can catch his bearings she kicks him sharply in his temple and he goes limp, rolling slightly as her foot throbs from the kick. He doesn't move and she finally listens to J'onn's concerned voice in her ear. Worried yet always steady. She ignores it for a second as she stumbles her way over to Kara's pod.

J'onn's voice is a concerned rumble as he questions her again. "I'm okay." Alex says as she sets a bloodied hand on the pod's command center and types in the final code. "I'll be okay." She pulls the comm from her ear, unwilling to hear everyone give her some last parting words. Unable to listen to the pain and grief in their voices. Unable to think about the one person she _wants_ to hear, the one person she misses with all of her being.

With a sudden surge of power Fort Rozz creaks and groans as it shakes off years of sand. With a shudder and a few stalls of the engine, Fort Rozz makes it's way into space. The glow of Kara's pod growing weaker and weaker as Fort Rozz's engines siphon all the power it can from the small ship. She sinks down into the seat of the pod and presses her hand into her side where Non had gotten her with a piece of shrapnel, watching out the window as the ship climbs higher and higher in the atmosphere. The darkness of space surrounds her and she wonders briefly if this is what Kara saw, if she looked at the stars and saw the vastness of space or if she looked at the stars and saw everything she left behind. Alex's head grows heavier and heavier with each pulse of Myriad. She finally collapses as the pain becomes unbearable and the world grows darker around her as they break the atmosphere, Kara's pod dies with a weak hum and her head spins with vigor before she gives into the darkness and the pain. Letting it take her.

* * *

 

There's an awful feeling that reaches her sense and Alex wakes with a start, gasping for breath and letting out a groan when her body protests. Cold blue eyes stare at her and Alex jerks back, reaching for weapons that are no longer on her. The kryptonite suit is gone as well. She stiffens in confusion as Non continues to stare at her, his wounds are still lethargically bleeding, like he hadn't bothered to treat his wounds yet. They sit in silence for a long while before Alex finally snarls at him. "What do you want?"

"You started Fort Rozz with an escape pod." His words are terse, lips pursed. There's a dark bruise that runs along his right temple and his nose is crooked, though it no longer bleeds. He still hasn't healed from their fight so she can't have been unconscious long. "You are smart by human standards." She continues to glare at him and he huffs, arms twitching like he wants to cross them. "Fort Rozz is damaged, you will fix it."

She scoffs, throat raw as she glares at him. "Like hell I will."

His face twists into a desperate snarl. "You threaten the last of a species, as a biologist, as a _doctor,_ can you condone that?" And his words are sharp as he scowls at her, there's a furious desperation there. "You owe us for stealing my wife, our General, from us." There's something terrible in his eyes, rage and grief and pain. So familiar.

"You tried to kill Earth, extinguish an entire species." Alex's face flushes with her rage. She's alive and stuck with Non, not exactly her idea of an ending when she came up with this plan. "An entire culture! Don't play with me by telling me to save thirty of your people."

His hands shake and he stares at her, there's something haunted in his eyes that she recognizes from Kara's early days. It bites at her heart, pulls at the memories in her head. "Your people would have killed millions more with their wars, they would have destroyed the planet. Myriad would have allowed us to save them all if your Martian wouldn't have freed them."

A scoff bursts from her chest and it hurts but she ignores it. "And killing us all was saving us?"

"Sometimes a species needs to die for another to thrive." There's a desperation in his eyes Alex had never expected to see, hadn't looked for when facing the kryptonian in battle. "Humans were destroying Earth."

"Why would you even care?"

"My wife and I lost out entire world!" He roars at her, veins pulsing across his forehead. "We would not have watched another burn." Alex coughs out a disbelieving laugh and he scowls at her. "To survive we must work together." He stares at her disdainfully, forcing the words out through clenched teeth. "As much as I _loath_ it."

"Myriad will kill me, I've accepted that." She smirks at him, a dark humor in her eyes as sje tilts her head back against the wall. "It's time you accept your death Non."

"Myriad is disconnected and we will starve on this ship." Alex stills at his words and he stares at her, thoughtful, pressing as he searches her face like he could read her mind. "You can return to Earth, your suicide mission was not as you thought it."

Alex grits her teeth, as much as she didn't want to admit it she wants to go home. Wants to see Earth and save her father, see her mother, see J'onn. See Kara, if the superhero would even look at her when Kara gets back. She wanted to know if the sun lamps and solar exposure had worked on Astra. She wants to know who survived and who died. "Fine, is there any power to the ship?"

He backs away slowly, warily eyeing her as she stands. "To the stasis pods, twenty-nine of them." His teeth bare into a snarl, uncontrolled in a way Alex hadn't expected the lieutenant to be. "We will not divert power from them."

Alex purses her lips, running through the schematics of Kara's pod in her head and wondering if they were relatively the same. "Is it emergency power?" Non nods his head sharply. They move to the command room, slowly, still wary of one another. "Is Kara's pod powered?"

"No, you've used it all to get us into space. Without power we will all die." His thought process runs the same, in a few days the emergency power would run out and the kryptonians would suffocate in their pods. That desperation to save them shows in his eyes, in the way he stopped Myriad to save Alex.

Alex shakes her head, noting that the piercing pain from Myriad is nearly completely gone, there is still a soft throb. A residual pain. "No, the emergency will keep stasis going for a while, we just have to worry about you and I surviving. If you have your powers then it's just me."

Non scowls hand fisting before he relaxes it. "I do not, we are far from your yellow sun. Fort Rozz offers no powers." He narrows his eyes at her. "I am far older than you and trained far longer, I can still kill you without my powers."

Alex bares her teeth at him in all her human nature. "Don't underestimate me, I beat kryptonians without having my own powers." Non sneers at her but remains quiet, they both refrain from mentioning Astra.

* * *

* * *

 

It is slow going, Alex fixing a small generator to power the atmosphere of the ship. It offers power first to just the command room, where she and Non sleep in intervals, still too wary of the other to sleep fully. According to Alex's watch days, weeks, go by. They live off stale rations that were left over in the ship. Slowly but surely they section the ship off, locking the airlocks on the doors to the parts of the ship that are compromised. They both remain in the command room though, continuing to sleep there. Kara's pod offers Alex a little comfort while Non stares at the stasis pods, as if memorizing them. He checks the health of his people daily, rigorously, nearly every two to three hours. They continue to slumber on, unaware of the toils Alex and Non face. 

Non's nose heals crooked and Alex's side eventually heals, leaving behind a ridged scar. Sometimes they will go days without talking to one another and then Non will get this look in his eyes, slightly crazed before he seeks Alex out and questions her on what she is doing. At first Alex bites out single word answer, frustrated that Non is standing over her shoulder and watching her work. Watching her do what humans do best and splice something together out of nothing. She finds a pattern to his visits and slowly she understands he is missing his people, missing companionship and she gives into a tense camaraderie, slowly, very very slowly.

They learn to rely on each other, still cautious but Alex wants to get home and Non wants his people alive, they have more things to worry about than their hatred for each other. Sometimes Alex wanders the ship, wanders the sections they allow to be activated. All the prison cells are closed off, the green-house grows their food very gradually, while the boiler room filters water from the air. A ship built for hundred if not thousands of prisoners is sectioned off until only five to nine rooms work and only two people fill the quiet ship. Some days they nearly go crazy with the monotone nature of it all, sometimes Non will challenge her to a game of Kryptonian strategy, sort of like chess but with five boards staged above one another and four sets of players, two sets for her and two for Non. Non beats her the first twenty time by a landslide, then Alex catches on to the rules of the game and they are locked in a battle of strategy sometimes for days. It offers a reprieve from the emptiness of space and the thoughts that haunt their minds.

Today finds them in the navigation's room again. The atmosphere in the chosen rooms, the water filtration unit and the green room as well as the stasis pods may be to full power but the navigation is still down and Fort Rozz continues to float lifelessly in space. Non and Alex work on this together, Non's knowledge of Kryptonian tech and star systems help, while Alex uses human ingenuity to try and fix the problems that seem to continually arise.

Alex breaks the silence that had carried hours that day. "What made you hate Kara?" It was something that ate at her, that this man could hate Kara yet care enough to bring her to Astra's last rites. "Did you even love her?"

Non pauses, narrowing his eyes at her. He is silent for a long time, fixing the piece of equipment he has in his hands before he speaks with a quiet rumble. "Kara was a bright child. I loved her dearly, she brought Astra great joy." He remains nearly still sans his hands for twenty minutes and Alex keeps tweaking the wiring system. Finally Non speaks again from where he had been fixing the doors and airlock systems. "Her father was a smart man, genius and he respected war tactics. He did what needed to be done to protect Krypton, though he passed the line many times." There's respect yet disdain in her voice. "Her mother was strong, had her values and held them tightly. They both ignored our warnings. They let Krypton die." He turns to stare at Alex. "They didn't believe us enough to help save Krypton but they had a pod set up to save their daughter. They let millions die but saved _one_ soul." He stares at Alex. "When you stare at someone and see both the man and woman who ignored you as well as the lost souls of a million of your people in her eyes, you would understand."

She knows what he is talking about, the depth of Kara's eyes, the haunted nature of them. The way they seemed to hold the grief of millions in them. "Did you love Astra?"

Non stares at her, eyes narrowed before he quietly murmurs. "Yes, for a long time."

One of the wires cross and shocks Alex's fingers, she grits her teeth and tweaks it with her fingers, moving it in a new direction. "Why did you stop?"

He glares at her, hands tightening on the tool in his hand. If he had his kryptonian strength it would be obliterated. "She is my life-mate, I love her even now."

"But?"

His eyes glaze over, hazy and pained. She recognizes the looks, had seen it on plenty of people she knew. "War and Fort Rozz will change even the strongest."

She's quiet for a moment, can see the man who Astra must have loved on Krypton. "That why you're so talkative?"

"You are my only companion, human as you are, you offer stability." His eyes are the same haunted look Astra's had when she was imprisoned in the DEO. "Fort Rozz is not kind, in order to survive we must keep our wits about us. We must keep our brains functioning."

"Great." She murmurs quietly, unwilling to admit that she's at least glad she's alive. Alive and not _alone._  

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

There's blinding pain, her chest pulsing like there was a live wire feeding through it. The pain is worse than the time she was nearly killed fighting alongside the Tamaranians. Astra groans lowly, unable to stop the sound as her senses come back to her. Her eyes flutter and a bright light, white not the red of Rao, greats her. She takes stock of her body, there's no bindings keeping her down, a hot surface below and above her. Giving her strength, she can feel it. There's soft fabric on her chest and hips and her mouth is dry. A creak beside and towards her head lets her know someone else is in the room. She breaths in slightly and smells ozone and hot sand. The Martian. 

"Hello Astra." His voice rumbles lowly, thick and nearly too deep for his human vocals, his keen ears picking up the change in her breathing.

"Martian." Astra says quietly, pushing on the top slowly, is creaks but does not move. Panic fills her but she stills it, pushing through her memories. The last she remembered was saying goodbye to Kara and moving towards Rao. "Why am I here?"

He moves forward with quiet steps and snaps the lid of the solar bed in place to let Astra sit up. "Alex brought you here after we found you in a CADMUS facility."

Astra hums low and quiet, looking around cautiously. Her muscles tremble from the exertion of sitting up. She eyes the martian warily. "I tried to kill you, yet I am alive and unshackled."

His dark eyes stare into her own, unimaginable grief in them. He lets out a soft sound, deep in his chest. "Alex had hope for you, she believed in you."

She narrows her eyes, the way he says her name, like it crack the inside of his chest open tugs at Astra's brain. She notes that he is the only one in the room with her. "Where is the Brave One then?"

"Missing, presumed dead."

Astra blinks slowly, that was news, she never expected Alex to leave Kara's side, not even in death. "How?"

He chews on his lip and the smell of ozone grows sharper, tickling at Astra's still nearly human senses. His chest rumbles in a truly alien nature. "She flew a de-powered Fort Rozz into space to prevent Myriad from killing all of humanity." 

Astra blink in surprise but stays quiet. She fights her memories, tries to find anything that will give away information, but she has no memory of completely Myriad. No knowledge of it. So she murmurs quietly. "And Non?"

"Your kryptonians were put into stasis. When Alex made to take off Non intercepted. She managed to fly it into space with all of them aboard, the power went out and they all most likely suffocated."

Astra stares at the martian, searches his dark face and finds lines of grief, her next question threatens to shatter her already weak body. She longs for the answer but wants to remain oblivious. "Why is Kara not here?"

His impassive face offers no hint, though his eyes are full of grief and shame. "Kara has taken a leave of absence to deal with her grief."

She slackens in relief, Kara is alive. Her Little One is not in Rao's light, though losing Alex she may very well wish she was in Rao's light with her. "It is understandable that she mourns the Brave One."

J'onn's face, skin dark instead of deep green, slackens and his shoulders drop in the most emotion Astra's seen him display. "Over you, you _were_ dead Miss In-Ze."

"I know." She furrows her brow, chest achingly cold like it would never be warm again. She remembers contentment and the warmth of Rao's light. "I saw Rao's light. Why am I alive?"

J'onn stares at her for a few moments, his haunted eyes meet hers and there's a spark of something there. "Alex hoped the solar bed would bring you out of your coma."

* * *

* * *

  

"Winn."

The man eyes Astra warily, his heart thundering in his chest so loud it feels like it's thudding along the inside of Astra's ears. "Ast-Miss In- I mean General In-Ze." He winces, blinking up at her with cowed shoulders. She tilts her head and stares at the man. He is stiff and hunched like the battle dogs on Glyph. Awaiting another beating for a small mistake. Any ill will she has eases, she always had a soft spot for the less fortunate. 

"You were at the Cat Tower, now you are DEO?" Earth seemed to be a fickle planet, they changed their guilds like they changed mates and she would never understand it. "Is it common for human's to have two identities?"

He shuffles, rubbing the back of his neck. His weak human heart still racing in his chest, quick like a skittish animal's. "After Kara left." He chews on his lips, shrugging his shoulders. "CatCo wasn't the same, I found Alex, helped her to get F-Fort Rozz in the air." His eyes are pained, lost and she recognize the look of a soldier who lost his people. The man had lost both Alex and Kara in one fell swoop. He reminds her of a teenage Non, soft and caring though hardened by his family. She knows what a rejected broken child looks like. She can understand why Kara cared for this man. Why Alex, nearly as stonic as Astra was after her imprisonment, was able to allow Winn into the fold. "I just didn't leave. I help more here."

Astra hums, low and quiet, she leaves at least four feet between her and the skittish human. She could cover it in less than a second, but she would give the poor man his space, he deserved it. "The Martian says you will help design a suit." Her lips pull into a frown. "I no longer have my Kryptonian battle suit." CADMUS had found her in it, had stripped her of it and her last tie to krypton is gone, Fort Rozz and her people gone. Kara gone. She had nothing left of her culture, of her people.

His heart skips and his eyes widen, she watches his muscles nearly vibrate, from fear or excitement she cannot tell. He clears his throat a few times before speaking. "Do you, um- Do you want one like Kara's suit?" A snort threatens to leave her so she narrows her eyes at Winn and arches a brow, it used to work on the new recruits on Krypton. Not terrifying, but reprimanding. He swallow and shrugs, body jerking like the boy didn't understand how to keep still. "I can um, I can make it like your battle suit. The one you fought Kara in? Though um, more color might be needed?" He holds his hands up, chewing on his lip like he expects her to jerk forward in anger. She doesn't know if it is because she is alien or if it is due to the way he was raised. Both thoughts make stones settle in her stomach. "At least not all black, we're not the bats."

She furrows her brow at the odd human slag, so unusual and confusing. "Bats?"

"Heroes, well vigilantes, in Gotham. They dress in all black, capes and cowls and us voice modifiers. I made Kara's suit like Superman's." He shrugs. "She's just so bright but um you're more quiet. You coul-you could pull off a mostly black suit so um I'll make something."

"Thank you Winn, the Martian said you would comply."

Winn nods quickly. "Of course." He blinks at her, shifting on his feet. "Are you gonna be a superhero now?"

She purses her lips. "It has come to my attention that human's listen to figures of the public and not those they don't know." She lets a grumble build in her throat. "The Martian said building my reputation as a _hero_ would allow me to help save the humans from killing themselves."

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

 

Kara closes her eyes, lets the sun war her body and give her its strength as she heads home. The months away had been necessary, she had feared her rage and grief would over power her, would make her vulnerable as well as force her to do something she regretted, mainly say or do something to Alex that she would regret. Themysciria, no the Amazon women, had taught her to be calm and steady in the face of her emotions, to control her strength when the rage is blinding. They helped her cope with the emotional turmoil from Astra's death, Alex's part in it and the loss of Krypton, both the first and second loss. They helped her heal more than she thought they could and now it was time to go home, time to face the consequences of leaving for a while and greet the people she had left behind. Anticipation and anxiety churning deep in her gut. She had found peace with her emotions, had learned that things happen in the heat of battle, she wants to fly back to Themysciria just as much as she wants to fly to Alex's apartment. Instead she flies to her own to try and get her bearings and a change of clothing.

Kara lands on the balcony, pushing open the door with a bit of kryptonian strength to snap the lock, she sniffs gently, there's a slight amount of dust in the air, no hint of Alex. Alex hadn't stepped in Kara's apartment since she flew away, that makes something ache in Kara's chest and gut, that Alex wouldn't seek comfort where she normally did. Kara moves around the room, searching for anything different. There's not much different, her laundry is put away from where she left it out all those weeks, months, ago. There's the fluttering of material in the wind and Kara spins around, expecting J'onn or Non, not the person there. Not Astra, with her hair flowing in the wind, white streak glowing from the moonlight.

Astra lands on the balcony after a call from Winn about a tripped alarm in Kara's apartment and Kara stares at her, eyes wide with shock and anguish. "No. No, this is not. I'm dreaming." Kara's hands shake and she wants to cry as she fights the urge to back away as well as run to her aunt. "This is Black Mercy again, I _can't."_

"Little One." Astra murmurs gently, her own hand trembles. Kara stares at her aunt, shaking with grief as Astra reaches out and touches Kara's face. Kara's entire body crumples and she falls into her aunt's arms. Squeezing as tightly as her kryptonian strength allows her. "I have you Kara. I have you my Little One." Astra murmurs lowly.

Kara's fingers tighten into the material at Astra's back, ripping it with her strength. "You're dead, you're gone. I saw you die." Kara sobs out.

Astra strokes her hair and back soothingly, squeezing Kara back just as tightly, breathing in the smell of her niece. The smell of Krypton, youth and the sun. "Hush child, your DEO found me in CADMUS, they brought me back."

Kara shakes her head, sobbing still into Astra's shoulder. "I saw your funeral pod, gave you your rites. Rao _took_ you into his light."

"Those humans did not understand this." Astra's voice cracks despite fighting to keep steady for her niece. "CADMUS, their doctor stole me away from Rao."

"Who found you?" Kara sobs into her shoulder and the guilt is thick in her cry, in the way she curls into Astra.

Astra hums low, an old kryptonian song she remembers humming to Kara on Krypton, before, soothing in its familiarity. "Director Henshaw and Agent Danvers."

Kara stills, that guilt and grief so heavy in her eyes and the set to her shoulders as she pulls back. "How long?"

Astra shatters every wall Kara had fixed with her next words, guilt forcing its way though her entire being. "I awoke two and a half months ago, according to the Martian you've been gone nearly four. Agent Danvers found me two weeks after your departure." And Kara could have been there, could have done something, but she ran away and she hates herself for it even though the peace she'd made on Themysciria is cracking.

* * *

 

Astra takes Kara to the DEO, pressed into her side and walking free in the DEO like Kara hadn't thought she'd ever be. Kara's brows furrows, Winn is in this DEO, sitting where Vasquez normally would sit, in front of all the computers with a comm in his ear and fingers flying across the screen. He doesn't spot her and she takes in all the changes. It's a new building, one near the outskirts of the city streets instead of the outskirts of the desert. There's something different here, a solemn air about the place that eats at her. She'd been gone a few months and everything seems to have changed, just like she had. 

Kara finally, after looking and listening and trying to find the familiar face and heartbeat of Alex, breaks. "Where's Alex?"

J'onn's lips thin, his Hank Henshaw face nearly as inexpressive as his martian form and Kara narrows her eyes, waiting. "Kara." J'onn's sigh is heavy but he presses on, voice heavy with grief. "Non brought Myriad to action about three weeks after you left, I posed as Supergirl and gave a speech that freed the humans from the control of Myriad."

Kara's clenching her jaw, a foreboding feeling heavy in the air. "What does this have to do with where Alex is?"

His dark eons old eyes search her before he speaks softly, like it will lessen the blow. "Almost three months ago Alex flew Fort Rozz into space after Non activated Myriad to kill all of humanity."

Fingers tighten on the steel of the table, splintering and denting it where she hadn't in the last few month on Themysciria. "Flew?"

"She wired your pod to Fort Rozz and flew it into space." His throat bobs and a pained martian sound rumbles deep in his throat, forcing its way out of his human shape. Kara stills completely, kryptonian muscles locking like steel at his words. "Communications went out after she reached space. All power to both ships was depleted."

"She's, where is she?" Her voice is low, demanding like it had been after Black Mercy, when she'd raced after Non. When her entire world had been taken from her again. Now she fears the very last piece of what she calls hers will be gone as well.

"Alex is presumed dead. Without power there would be no oxygen." J'onn's voice is low and soft. Guilty and anguished. "I am sorry Kara, she. She gave her life to save humanity."

Kara stops breathing, doesn't move, eyes staring wide ahead before she shatters. "I don't. She can't be gone." Kara's voice is hoarse, no longer low and demanding. "She can't. I didn't. She thought I hated her. She thought. I didn't." Kara voice cracks and she falls her her knees, letting out a sound of complete anguish. Tinged in something almost like rage. Her eyes glow hot and bright, the tears evaporate before they can even fall as Kara's chest _aches._ Astra drops down to her knees beside her, letting Kara dig fingers harder than her own into her shoulder. Lets her niece sob into her shoulder like her world is lost all over again. 

* * *

 

_Kara keeps her arms crossed as she glares at J'onn over Alex's shoulder, he looks resigned but not slighted. His heart is steady and slow where Alex's races._ _"_ _I can't do this anymore." Alex's voice cracks, low like it had when Jeremiah had died, like everything she knew was ending._

_Kara steps forward, hand stretching to offer comfort without thought. "Alex?"_

_Alex stumbles back a bit, like she doesn't believe she deserve the comfort and Kara ache to hold her and question why she is falling apart. "J'onn. J'onn didn't kill Astra." Alex's voice is thick now, heavy with something and Kara face tightens and she shakes her head, the need to comfort slowly being over ridden by disbelief and desperation. Alex shudders. "I did. I killed her."_

_"What?" The word escapes without Kara's permission and she sees the truth in Alex's eyes, the way her shoulders are hunched, the way tears fill her eyes and how her vocal chords crack and vibrate like she's choking on them. Kara doesn't want to believe it, can't._

_"He took the blame because he saw how devastated you were and I let him. Because I was afraid of losing you." Alex trembles, shattering Kara's entire world with just a few words. "And I can't lose you."_

_Kara stares at her, eyes filling with tears, the room is quiet, a thick heavy quiet that settles over them like a dark shroud. "You. You killed her?" Alex nods, fighting to keep her face from crumpling. Keep her will from breaking. "I can't." Kara takes a step back and her face twists into rage and grief and everything in between. Her whole world is cracking out from under her in a way she never saw coming. She loved Alex more than she could love anyone else, could forgive Alex for anything, but Alex took the last tie to Krypton she had. The last tie to her childhood. Everything in her body wars within her. "No."_

_Alex swallows thickly but holds her tongue, she seems to know no words will fix this, that no apology will, but her mouth moves without conscious thought, an innate reaction to the emotions Kara is feeling. She leans in as if to take a step, as if to touch Kara like she had so many ties before, unable to control her body's normal reaction to Kara in pain much like Kara can't control herself around Alex. "Ka-"_

_"NO!" Kara jerks back, can't handle the thought of a hand that offered her so much comfort could have held the sword that killed her aunt. "You, you lied to me! Yo-you killed Astra." Kara's eyes drip with tears and there's a twist of anguish across her lips and brow, like she can't believe Alex's words. Doesn't want to. "No, tell me you're lying, please. You knew she was the last thing I had of Krypton, you knew. You wouldn't. Please Alex." Kara begs, voice crack as her arms curl around her own stomach, Alex lets out a choked sound, hands twisting together to keep from reaching for Kara and Kara lets out a shout of anguish, throwing a fist into the wall. It shatters under kryptonian strength and dust fills the air. J'onn tenses, eyeing both women carefully but keeping his distance. "You killed her." Kara voice goes low, thick with so much emotion. "I can't do this. I can't look at y-" Kara shakes her head, mind at war with her heart. Emotions clouding everything. "I can't." She backs away slowly before shooting through the roof of the room and leaving. Alex lets out a low rough keening sound and falls to her knees, Kara closes her eyes and flies harder, fights the urge to fly back and clutch Alex to her chest and tell her everything would be fine._

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

 

Alex keeps pushes her hair back from her eyes again, it'd gotten longer, not long enough to pull up but long enough to be annoying. Non grumbles from nearby, where he is working, the wires had been completely demolished from the crash and rise of Fort Rozz. Soon they'll have most of the necessities fixed and Alex can't put this off any longer so she plows forward like she'd learned, lacking tact or warning. "Astra is alive."

Non's face stills, nearly impassive but it's his eyes she watches. Full of a shocked hope, desperation. _"What?"_

Alex screws the panel back into place, Non is still frozen, waiting so she continues. "She was in a coma last I saw her. A place called CADMUS had found her, they brought her back to life." Her hand shakes and she remembers the feel of the sword slipping through Astra's chest, barely any resistance, the crack of bone and the squelch of blood and flesh. She swallows thickly, remembers finding Astra semi-alive and unconscious. Pale and weaker than Alex had ever seen her. "Then I found her, took her from them. Hooked her up to some solar beds, they may have worked. She could be awake, alive."

"Kara helped with this?"

Alex shakes her head, aching over the conflict, anguish and rage in Kara's eyes. The tears streaming down her face before Kara flew away as fast as she could. "Kara left when she found out what i'd done."

He crouches down next to her, still a foot away but near her. He looks contemplative. "Did you bring Astra back to fix your relationship with Kara?"

"No." Alex stares at him, sees the hope hidden in his face, the brightness that is back in his once dull eyes. "If you could, would you bring the people you killed back to life?"

His eyes go far away, like he's back in a battle, she recognizes the look. "Once, maybe before Fort Rozz."

It hurts, that maybe she'll be just like him one day, the death of enemies and possible allies under her hands, more so than now. Blood she can't wash away no matter how hard she tries. So she presses, wanting the truth, hoping against all hope that he still wants to wash it away. That maybe the uncle Kara had known is still in Non somewhere. "And now?"

"There is too much blood on my hands Al'ex." He says her name in his thick Kryptonian accent, like Kara had when she first landed. It make her miss Kara all the more. "Are we on trajectory for Earth?"

Alex chews on her lip and keeps from mentioning that she'd put off the final touches to Navigation for this very reason. "No, you tried to enslave humanity."

He jerks to his feet, nostrils flaring and if he was under the yellow sun his eyes would be glowing hot and bright. "They are another Krypton, they will destroy themselves!"

Alex stares at him and he quiets, face flushed, ready to listen to Alex where he once wouldn't have. "I know, we know the damages we do Non. Earth isn't exactly like Krypton, there are some groups working to prevent what happened to Krypton."

He scoffs, face twisting into a disbelieving sneer. Still as pretentious as he had been when Alex had first saw him. "Not enough."

"I know, but I can't take you to Earth." She'd given her life up to safe earth, to keep Kara from losing another planet. She won't allow it to happen again, not when she can prevent it. "I won't let you destroy humanity, no matter how much they deserve it."

His hands fist but he controls his anger better than most human men Alex knew, he doesn't pace and rage, he is a calm chilly anger. "Then why do you tell me this!"

"I know you want to see Astra, you still care for her." She can see it in his eyes, the tense set of his shoulders and the twist to his lips. "What I want to know is if you care for her enough to change?"

His shoulders loosen slightly, and his lips untwist. "Why?"

"There are thirty kryptonians on this ship with you, Kara's not the last of her kind anymore." Kara's face, ashen and full of anguish after Black Mercy flashes through Alex's mind. "I don't want to take away another chance at her happiness."

His chest still in that impossible way his species always seems to manage. "What do you want?"

"I want to give Kara her people back, her culture." She fights the urge to twist her hands like she does when nervous, she can't twist them, not when their buried in the engine system again. "You can help with that."

"You love her." There's a shocked look to his face, like its just now dawning on him.

Alex makes a pained sound, thick in her throat and heavy in her chest. "Of course I do."

"I did not realize you were life-mates." He murmurs quietly, there's a pained hitch to his voice and empathy in his eyes. 

Alex shakes her head, tears filling her eyes. "We're not, we never." She trembles, swallowing thickly. "We're not."

There's no pity in his eyes and he hands her a tool with a quiet, sure, murmur. "Yet you would do anything for her?"

"Yes."

"Most would not be so lucky to receive a mate that would do what you would." His eyes are soft where she wouldn't have expected them to be if she hadn't been stuck months on Fort Rozz with him.

"Would you do it for Astra?"

He is silent for a long while, but Alex is used to his silence, to the way he thinks over his words before he speaks. Understands why he was Astra's lieutenant. "Our love has been skewed, once, before Fort Rozz I would have torn the world apart for her, but I tried to take Kara from her." He doesn't smile, though his eyes are heavy with regret. "She will never forgive me for that, I would not ask her too."

Alex lets out a choked almost laugh, she and Non were more alike than she had ever thought or wanted. "I guess we're the same with that then, you tried to take Kara from her and I took Astra from Kara."

He stares at her, thoughtful as he moves back to unhook the panel to the engines. "You are fine with my part in Myriad, yet you are still angry about the Black Mercy."

She fights the urge to glare at him, to jerk forward an throw punches, months with Non had tempered her anger. Had tempered the innate fight response she had developed to protect Kara. "You tried to take Kara from me, I won't forgive anyone for that."

"And I cannot forgive you for your part in Astra's death." Non murmurs.


	11. A Painful Violent Rage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red kryptonite gone wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Major character death warning (See final note for summary if you don't wanna read details), also I apologize because this may hurt.

Kara blinks away the clouded red haze from her eyes, heat dying away as her ears finally pick up the missing sound of Alex's steady heartbeat. "Alex?" Alex is slumped, eyes opened towards the sky and chest impossibly still. "No, no." Kara stumbles forward, drops to her knees, veins still impossibly red. "No." Her eyes burn again, hotter than ever and the rage is there, twisted with anguish and self-hatred. "Please." She pulls Alex to her gently, cradling the dead woman, still warm, to her chest. "Rao, no."

J'onn stands there, having morphed back into his Hank Henshaw form. His eyes are fractured, he doesn't speak. Kara stares up at him. "Please, _do it._ Please."

J'onn shakes his head, tears filling his eyes. "I can't." He can't lose them both, can't kill Kara. Can't do it even with the blonde begging. The DEO agents had stop moving around them all except Dallas. Kara recognizes him as Alex's partner in the field, stumbles closer. His hands tremble and he's staring at Kara with grief. Kara looks up with pleading eyes. _"Please."_ He swallows, nods. Before J'onn can react Dallas shoots Kara between the eyes, kryptonite bullet slipping into impenetrable skin, glowing green as it enters her bloodstream and Kara falls back with a thud, arms still curled around Alex even in death.

"DALLAS!" J'onn roars, racing forward. Dallas drops the gun and falls to his knees, hands coming to the back of his head as if preparing for arrest.

His chin is tilted high and his pale blue eyes are filled with tears. "She shouldn't suffer, I put an end to it. I wouldn't want to survive through killing someone I loved either. Alex, Alex would understand." Those tears slip down his dark cheek, lost in the strap of his helmet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter summary-(Kara kills Alex under influence of Red!K, then begs J'onn to kill her, he can't so Alex's partner at the DEO does it for Kara, by shooting her with a kryptonite bullet.)
> 
> This was a 300 word drabble that wouldn't leave my mind, so I wrote it. The shortest thing I've ever written and probably the most painful. Thank you guys for reading, and if you didn't I don't blame you.


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